required a
personal conference. The old veteran dwelt in a moveable hut, which being placed
on trucks, he could order to be wheeled about at pleasure, sometimes living in
one part of the area within the fort, and sometimes in another.2 On the present
occasion, he had made a halt near the centre, and there he was found by his
subordinate, who was admitted to his presence without any delay, or dancing
attendance in an ante-chamber. In point of fact, there was very little
difference in the quality of the accommodations given to the officers and those
allowed to the men, the former being merely granted the most room, and Mabel and
her father were lodged nearly, if not quite as well, as the commandant of the
place, himself.
    »Walk in, serjeant, walk in, my good friend,« said old Lundie, heartily, as
his inferior, stood in a respectful attitude at the door of a sort of library
and bed-room into which he had been ushered; »walk in, and take a seat on that
stool. I have sent for you, man, to discuss any thing but rosters and payrolls,
this evening. It is now many years since we have been comrades, and auld lang
syne should count for something, even between a Major and his orderly, a Scot
and a Yankee. Sit ye down, man, and just put yourself at your ease. It has been
a fine day, serjeant?«
    »It has indeed, Major Duncan,« returned the other, who, though he complied
so far as to take the seat, was much too practised not to understand the degree
of respect it was necessary to maintain in his manner; »a very fine day, sir, it
has been, and we may look for more of them, at this season.«
    »I hope so, with all my heart. The crops look well, as it is, man, and
you'll be finding that the 55th make almost as good farmers as soldiers. I never
saw better potatoes in Scotland, than we are likely to have, in that new patch,
of ours.«
    »They promise a good yield, Major Duncan, and, in that light, a more
comfortable winter than the last.«
    »Life is progressive, serjeant, in its comforts, as well as in its need of
them. We grow old, and I begin to think it time to retire and settle in life. I
feel that my working days are nearly over.«
    »The King,