was at school,"
Frank said quietly, "but I don't think I was disliked for sticking to
work sometimes, when other fellows were playing. Surely when one is from
morning till night with other men, it can matter to no one but himself
if he gives two or three hours a day to work."

"It does not matter to anyone, Wyatt. I am quite willing to grant it,
but for all that, I am afraid, if you stick to it, you will have to put
up with a great deal of chaff, and not always of a good-natured kind."

"I can put up with any amount of chaff," Frank replied; "I mean chaff in
its proper sense. Anything that goes beyond that, I shall, I hope, be
able to meet as it deserves. Perhaps it would be better if I were to
take half an hour a day off my Russian studies and to spend that time in
the pistol-gallery."

Captain Lister looked at him earnestly. "I think you will do,
youngster," he said approvingly, "that is the right spirit. There is a
lot of rough fun and larking in a regiment, and the man that goes
through it best, is he who can take a joke good-temperedly as long as it
does not go beyond the bounds of moderation, but who is ready to resent
any wilful insult: but I think you would be very wise to do as you say.
Half an hour in a pistol-gallery every day is likely to be of vastly
more use to you than any amount of Russian. The reputation that a man is
a crack shot with a pistol will do more than anything in the world to
keep him out of quarrels. Here at the depot at any rate, where the
fellows are for the most part young, it would certainly save you a good
deal of annoyance if it were known that, although not by any means a
quarrelsome fellow, you were determined to put up with nothing beyond
good-humoured jokes. Well, lad, I don't want to interfere with your
hobby, only I advise you not to ride it too hard, at any rate at first.
When the men all know you and get to like you, and see that, apart from
this fancy of yours, you are an all-round good fellow, as I can see you
are, they will let you go your own way. At any rate, as captain of your
troop, I will do all I can to make things pleasant for you, but don't
forget about the pistol practice. At a depot like this, where there are
half a dozen regiments represented, you will meet with a larger
proportion of disagreeable men than you would in your own ante-room. You
see, if colonels have such men, they are glad enough to rid the regiment
of them by leaving them at the depot, and any se