the
provincials, for our officers were ignorant in such matters.

On the way to and from Ticonderoga the men had drunk a good deal of lake
water, and this with the grief over our defeat and the filthy state of
our camp had caused much sickness.

[Sidenote: PROVINCIALS BEAT REGULARS SHOOTING]

Having been out in the woods on scouts, I was in good condition, and my
wounds began to heal quickly. Edmund took me over to see the man we had
rescued at Ticonderoga. We found him doing well, cursing the French, and
aching to get at them again. We looked up our kinsmen Hector and Donald
and struck up a great friendship with the men of the Black Watch. Hector
and Donald were both God-fearing men, and went with us several times to
hear Parson Cleveland of Bagley's regiment preach. He gave us sermons
full of meat, and we enjoyed them.

The regulars and provincials did not get on well together. The
Englishmen looked down on the provincial officers and men, and this
caused much hard feeling. One day in August, the regulars and
provincials practised firing with great guns at a target in the lake,
and our men beat the regulars thoroughly. That pleased us and made the
old country men feel pretty glum. Although the regulars scorned the
provincials, yet they held the Rangers in high esteem.

"Why is it, Donald," I asked, "that the regulars think so well of us,
and laugh at the rest of the provincials?"

"Well, man, one reason is, because you're no province soldiers at all,
being in the direct pay and service of the King, like ourselves. And
then you're a braw set of men, and ken this fighting in the woods a deal
better than we do, and we know it. But the provincials are gawks from
country towns, without discipline, and with no more knowledge of the
woods than we have."

"But Edmund and I are from a town like them."

"You've keppit gude company, since you've been with the Rangers, and
have been long enough with them to look and act like the rest of them.
One would take you for hunters and woodsmen."

"But the provincials were the last to leave the field at Ticonderoga."

"I'm no denying it. They fought well."

"And for country greenhorns, they did pretty well with the cannon the
other day."

"Aye, man, I'm no saying they didn't. I'm a truthful man, and I maun say
I was sair disappointed when they beat us shooting." And he changed the
subject.

[Sidenote: LAKE GEORGE]

Though our camp was foul, yet the lake was the fairest s