“Very sorry, Sergeant, but I don’t come off,” said Dick, smiling.
“No, sir; I’d almost rather you did, for then you’d learn our ways quicker. I have just the same trouble with you that I had with that Bob Hanson.”
“Hanson? Bob Hanson?” said Dick thoughtfully. “Isn’t that the man I heard Captain Hulton talk about?”
“Yes, sir; no doubt. No man in the regiment has been more talked about than he has.”
“A court-martial, wasn’t there?”
“Yes, sir; and he was under punishment. A precious narrow escape he had of being flogged.”
“Ugh!” ejaculated Dick. “Horrible!”
“’Tis, sir; but what are you to do with a man who will do wrong?”
“Try kindness.”
“And be laughed at, sir. Tell a man who breaks out, and does everything a soldier shouldn’t do, that he has been very naughty and mustn’t do so any more. No, sir; that won’t do.”