I was meditating with sympathy upon the many victims of Sergeant Wally's borrowed sarcasm when he spoke again.
"When I first came up to London from the depôt," he said, "I'd a brother, a corporal in the same battalion. You know as well as I do, Sir, that as a matter o' discipline a corporal doesn't have any truck with a private soldier, excepting in the way of duties, and my brother didn't speak to me for the first week. Then one day he called me up and said, 'It ain't the thing for me to be going about with you, but as you're my brother I'll go out with you to-night. Have yourself cleaned by six o'clock.'
"Well, I took all the money I'd got—about twelve bob—and off we went.
"We had a bit o' supper first at a place my brother knew of, and a very good supper it was. My brother ordered it, but I paid. Then we got a couple of cigars—at least, I did. Then we went to a music-hall, me paying, of course. We had a drink during the evening, and when we came out my brother said, 'We'd better come in here and have a snack.'
"'Well, I ain't got any money left,' I sez. My brother looked at me a minute, and then he said, 'I don't know what I've been thinking of, going about with you, you a private and me a corporal. Be off 'ome !' And he stalks away.
"Yes, Sir, discipline's the thing. Thank you, I'll have another cigarette."
Simpler Fashions in India.
"The bride, who was given away by her father, looked happy and handsome in a beautiful red fern dress."—Allahabad Pioneer.