"He's just had a good feed," Ronald said, "and will not want any more, but I may as well give him the hay to amuse himself with. It will accustom him to his new quarters. What shall I do with my rifle and pistols?"
"Bring them with you, lad; but there was no occasion for you to have brought them. Government finds arms."
"I happened to have them with me," Ronald said, "and as the rifle carries Government ammunition, I thought they would let me use it."
"If it's about the right length I have no doubt they will be glad to do so, for we have no very great store of arms, and we are not quite so particular about having everything exactly uniform as they are in a crack corps at home. As for the pistols, there is no doubt about them, as being in the holsters they don't show. Several of the men have got them, and most of the officers. Now, I will take you up to your quarters." The room to which he led Ronald contained about a dozen men. Some had already gone to bed, others were rubbing up bits and accoutrements; one or two were reading. "Here's a new comrade, lads," the sergeant said; "Blunt's his name. He is a new arrival from home, and you won't find him a greenhorn, for he has served already."
Ronald had the knack of making himself at home, and was, before he turned in an hour later, on terms of good fellowship with his comrades.
In the morning, after grooming his horse, he went into the barrack-yard, when the troop formed up for dismounted drill.
"Will you take your place at once in the ranks?" Sergeant Menzies asked. "Do you feel equal to it?"
"Yes; I have not grown rusty," Ronald replied, as he fell in.
An hour's work sufficed to show Sergeant Menzies, who was drilling the troop, that the new recruit needed no instructions on that score, and that he was as perfect in his drill as any one in the troop.
"Are you as well up in your cavalry drill as in the infantry?" he asked Ronald as the troop fell out.