ame age as the other junior lieutenants and, withal, a
pleasant, gentlemanly young man. The fact, too, that he had seen so
much service, had gone through stirring adventures, and had fought
by the side of Cavagnari in the Bala-Hissar, made him quite a hero
among them; and Will was soon thoroughly one of themselves.

When it was known that the regiment was likely to remain at
Candahar for some time, many luxuries had been brought up from
India; together with means of passing away the time, such as the
necessary appliances for cricket, racket, and other games. Among
these, too, were several boxes of books; and Will--who had, at
first, a little amused his comrades by his absolute ignorance of
cricket, but who soon became a promising recruit at that
game--steadily devoted three hours a day to reading, in order to
improve his mind, and to obtain a knowledge of the various matters
which were topics of conversation among his comrades. Above all he
diligently studied the newspapers--great parcels of which arrived
every week--in order to obtain some knowledge of the political
state of affairs in England, the position of parties, and the
various matters occupying public attention.

He had, at first, found his ignorance of these matters a great
drawback to him, in general conversation; but he discovered that
newspapers, rather than books, are useful in enabling a man to mix
with his fellows in social talk; and that the current events of the
day form ninety-nine hundredths of the subjects of conversation.
The fact that all his mess mates had been thoroughly posted in the
history of Rome and Greece, that they could read these languages
almost a well as English, that they had been coached in high
mathematics, and had a knowledge of French and German, gave
them--Will found--very little advantage in general conversation;
and he was surprised to discover how entirely useless, from a
practical point of view, is much of the instruction which must be
mastered by young men, before obtaining a commission.

Many times, when talking with the young officers with whom he was
most intimate, he inquired of them what good they found the
learning they had obtained, during their many years of schooling;
and was surprised at the universal reply: "No good, whatever!" He
found, however, that some of the more thoughtful of them admitted
that they had gained increased powers of thought, and reasoning,
from their training.

"That is the good of educa