n's shilling and enlist in the West
York Rifles.

I left yon fields so fair to view,
I left yon mountain pass and peaks;
I left two e'en so bonny blue,
A dimpled chin and rosy cheeks.
For a helmet gay and suit o' red
I did exchange my corduroy;
I mind the words the sergeant said
When I, in sooth, was but a boy.

CHAPTER IX

MY MILITARY CAREER

Now I commence a brand new era of my life. I am one of the Queen's great
body-guard--I am 'listed--sworn, and all. Why this? Was it because I
wanted to "follow to the field some warlike lord?" No; it was simply a
thirst to see fresh fields and pastures new--fresh places and fresh
faces. It was not long before I found that my desire was to be gratified,
for I learned that the regiment to which I belonged--or soon was to
belong--was already on the road from Aldershot to Edinburgh. I saw that
my long-cherished desire to visit the Land o' Cakes and Barley was to be
fulfilled. I believe that I shall have to confess that the thought of
getting to see bonnie Scotland was the all-powerful reason for my joining
the army. When I 'listed I told the sergeant that he had better take me
to the headquarters in Bradford at once, as I was so well known in the
town, and did not want to figure as a recruit in the "publics," where it
was the custom to keep the recruits until a batch had been got together.
Still the sergeant kept me there, until I threatened that if he did not
send me off at once I would desert and leave the town. I was the only
recruit he got in Bradford. He took me to Pontefract, where there were
more recruits in waiting.

EMBARKING FOR SCOTLAND

I stayed in Pontefract a couple of days, and then I was moved with the
other recruits to the port of Hull, where we embarked one splendid autumn
afternoon in a screw steamer for Leith, in Scotland. I shall never forget
the incidents which happened during this short voyage. There were many
passengers on board, not the least important being a couple of London
sharpers. There was an escort of soldiers who were taking a deserter back
to his regiment, and there was a young man-o'-war's man belonging to the
good ship "Cornwallis." He was going to Scotland to see his mother in
Edinburgh. Then there was an elderly gentleman, who, judging by his
bronzed countenance, had been in a foreign clime for a long time. He was
returning to his native heath. Another passenger was a dashing young
gentleman, who