As an instance of this, there were a few of us in the habit, instead of spending our idle time in the public-house, of walking down by the river side, carrying our books with us, and alternately reading and conversing. Some of our comrades who had been addicted to drink, sometimes joined us for the sake of the walk; and from the pleasure they derived from the conversation, and the new ideas awakened in their minds, they voluntarily gave up their old habits, and became converts to our system. We procured books on the various subjects to which our attention was excited, and although not quite masters of the subject, it would have surprised many people to have heard our disquisitions on Natural Philosophy, History, &c. Music was a favourite amusement also, and by forming small parties, we were never at a loss to pass the time, and when on guard, (the most irksome time to others,) we found it the most pleasant. Our number was not great, certainly, but a little encouragement and countenance from our officers might have done much. The detached situation of the regiment often broke up our party, but still we cherished the germ of intellectual improvement; and if I have in any way gained the start of my comrades in this respect, it has been by my application while in the army, for when I first entered it, my education was entirely confined to the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. I know there are men who look upon the increasing intelligence of the lower classes of society with a fearful eye, considering it as the precursor of revolution and anarchy. The man who thinks so, must have a ‘worthless neivefu’ of a soul.’ Education, by improving the understanding and ripening the judgment, leads men to see clearly their own interest and follow it steadily, and of course will always render them tractable to the existing government, where that government is not tyrannical and unjust. None have any reason to fear the spread of knowledge, but those whose actions loathe the light. CHAPTER XVI. THE DESERTER. I was one day on the main guard in Kilkenny, when a deserter, passing through under escort to Dublin, was delivered to our charge. The poor fellow was accompanied by his mother and two sisters. Such unusual company with a man in his situation excited my curiosity, and inquiring into the particulars of his case, he told me that his father had died about two years before, leaving his family, consisting of his wife and six children, the lease of a small farm of twenty acres, at a moderate rent; he was the elder child, and only son of the family, and the charge and cultivation of the land principally devolved upon him.