ge matters: while Scoutbush went out into the hall
with Campbell, and scrambled into his pea-jacket, to go off to the yacht
that moment.

"You'll see to them, there's a good fellow," as they lighted their
cigars at the door. "That Vavasour is greener than grass, you know,
_tant pis_ for my poor sister."

"I am not going."

"Not going?"

"Certainly not; so my rooms will be at their service; and you had much
better escort them yourself. It will be much less disagreeable for
Vavasour, who knows nothing of commanding sailors," or himself, thought
the Major, "than finding himself master of your yacht in your absence,
and you will get your fishing as you intended."

"But why are you going to stay?"

"Oh, I have not half done with the sea-beasts here. I found too new ones
yesterday."

"Quaint old beetle-hunter you are, for a man who has fought in
half-a-dozen battles!" and Scoutbush walked on silently for five minutes.

Suddenly he broke out--

"I cannot! By George, I cannot; and what's more, I won't!"

"What?"

"Run away. It will look so--so cowardly, and there's the truth of it,
before those fine fellows down there: and just as I am come among them,
too! The commander-in-chief to turn tail at the first shot! Though I
can't be of any use, I know, and I should have liked a fortnight's
fishing so," said he in a dolorous voice, "before going to be eaten up
with flies at Varna--for this Crimean expedition is all moonshine."

"Don't be too sure of that," said Campbell. "We shall go; and some of us
who go will never come back, Freddy. I know those Russians better than
many, and I have been talking them over lately with Thurnall, who has
been in their service."

"Has he been at Sevastopol?"

"No. Almost the only place on earth where he has not been: but from all
he says, and from all I know, we are undervaluing our foes, as usual,
and shall smart for it!"

"We'll lick them, never fear!"

"Yes; but not at the first round. Scoutbush, your life has been child's
play as yet. You are going now to see life in earnest,--the sort of life
which average people have been living, in every age and country, since
Adam's fall; a life of sorrow and danger, tears and blood, mistake,
confusion, and perplexity; and you will find it a very new sensation;
and, at first, a very ugly one. All the more reason for doing what good
deeds you can before you go; for you may have no time left to do any on
the other side of the sea."

Scou