a sweet and refreshing
sleep.«
    »The same to yourself, Mr. Muir, with many thanks. Remember the passage of
arms for the morrow.«
    The Quarter Master withdrew, leaving Lundie in his library to reflect on
what had just passed. Use had so accustomed Major Duncan to Lt. Muir, and all
his traits and humours, that the conduct of the latter did not strike the former
with the same force, as it will probably strike the reader. In truth, while all
men act under one common law that is termed human nature, the varieties in their
dispositions, modes of judging, feelings and selfishness are infinite.
 

                                   Chapter XI

 »Compel the hawke, to sit that is unmann'd,
 Or make the hound, untaught to draw the deere,
 Or bring the free, against his will in band,
 Or move the sad, a pleasant tale to heere,
 Your time is lost, and you no whit the neere!
 So love ne learnes, of force the heart to knit:
 She serves but those, that feel sweet fancies fit.«
                                           Churchyard, A Mirror for Magistrates,
                                                     »Shore's Wife,« ll. 127-33.
 
It is not often that hope is rewarded by fruition, as completely as the wishes
of the young men of the garrison were met by the state of the weather, on the
succeeding day. It may be no more than the ordinary waywardness of man, but the
Americans are a little accustomed to taking pride in things, that the means of
intelligent comparisons would probably show, were in reality of a very inferior
quality, while they overlook, or undervalue advantages that place them certainly
on a level with, if not above most of their fellow creatures. Among the latter
is the climate, which, as a whole, though far from perfect, is infinitely more
agreeable, and quite as healthy, as those of most of the countries which are
loudest in their denunciations of it. The heats of summer were little felt at
Oswego, at the period of which we are writing, for the shade of the forest added
to the refreshing breezes from the lake, so far reduced the influence of the
sun, as to render the nights always cool, and the days seldom oppressive.
    It was now September, a month in which the strong gales of the coast often
appear to force themselves across the country as far as the great lakes, where
the inland sailor sometimes feels that genial influence which characterizes the
winds of the ocean, invigorating his frame, cheering his spirits, and arousing
his moral force. Such a day was