, than
it takes to make any thing else, and it ought to require unusual time to make a
good soldier's daughter.«
    »This is new doctrine, serjeant,« said Cap, with some spirit. »We old seamen
are apt to think that six soldiers, ay, and capital soldiers too, might be made,
while one sailor is getting his education.«
    »Ay, brother Cap, I've seen something of the opinions which sea-faring men
have of themselves,« returned the brother-in-law, with a smile as bland as
comported with his saturnine features; »for I was many years one of the garrison
in a sea-port. You and I have conversed on the subject before, and I'm afraid we
shall never agree. But if you wish to know what the difference is, between a
real soldier, and man in what I should call a state of nature, you have only to
look at a battalion of the 55th, on parade this afternoon, and then, when you
get back to York, to examine one of the militia regiments making its greatest
efforts.«
    »Well, to my eye, serjeant, there is very little difference - not more than
you'll find between a brig and a snow. To me they seem alike; all scarlet, and
feathers, and powder, and pipe clay.«
    »So much, sir, for the judgment of a sailor,« returned the serjeant with
dignity; »but perhaps you are not aware that it requires a year to teach a true
soldier how to eat.«
    »So much the worse for him! The militia know how to eat at starting, for I
have often heard, that, on their marches, they commonly eat all before them,
even if they do nothing else.«
    »They have their gifts, I suppose, like other men,« observed Pathfinder,
with a view to preserve the peace, which was evidently in some danger of being
broken, by the obstinate predilection of each of the disputants in favor of his
own calling; »and when a man has his gift from Providence it is commonly idle to
endivor to bear up ag'in it. The 55th, sarjeant, is a judicious rigiment, in the
way of eating, as I know from having been so long in its Company, though I dare
say militia corps could be found that would outdo them in feats of that natur',
too.«
    »Uncle,« said Mabel, »if you have breakfasted, I will thank