rman cut the
tail off to make a shako plume!'"

I assured him that he might as well pretend to miss one tree in the
forest of "Fontainebleu"--that after furnishing a squadron like myself,
his would be still the first beard in the Republic; and at last he
yielded, and gave in.

Never did a little damsel of the nursery array her doll with
more delighted looks, and gaze upon her handiwork with more
self-satisfaction, than did old Tronchon survey me, as, with the aid of
a little gum, he decorated my lip with a stiff line of his iron red
beard.

"Diantre!" cried he, in ecstasy, "if thou ben't something like a man,
after all. Who would have thought it would have made such a change? Thou
might pass for one that saw real smoke and real fire, any day, lad. Ay!
thou hast another look in thine eye, and another way to carry thy head,
now! Trust me, thou'lt look a different fellow on the left of the
squadron."

I began to think so, too, as I looked at myself in the small triangle of
a looking-glass, which decorated Tronchon's wall, under a picture of
Kellerman, his first captain. I fancied that the improvement was most
decided. I thought that, bating a little over-ferocity, a something
verging upon the cruel, I was about as perfect a type of the hussar as
need be. My jacket seemed to fit tighter--my pelisse hung more
jauntily--my shako sat more saucily on one side of my head--my sabre
banged more proudly against my boot--my very spurs jangled with a
pleasanter music--and all because a little hair bristled over my lip,
and curled in two spiral flourishes across my cheek! I longed to see the
effect of my changed appearance, as I walked down the "Place Carriere,"
or sauntered into the cafe where my comrades used to assemble. What will
Mademoiselle Josephine say, thought I, as I ask for my "petit verre,"
caressing my mustache thus! Not a doubt of it, what a fan is to a woman,
a beard is to a soldier! a something to fill up the pauses in
conversation, by blandly smoothing with the finger, or fiercely curling
at the point!

"And so thou art going to ask for thy grade, Maurice?" broke in
Tronchon, after a long silence.

"Not at all. I am about to petition for employment upon active service.
I don't seek promotion till I have deserved it."

"Better still, lad. I was eight years myself in the ranks before they
gave me the stripe on my arm. Parbleu! the Germans had given me some
three or four with the sabre before that time."

"Do