the soldier about me, if I hadn't let the cat out of the bag.” “Indeed I should not, sir, I must confess,” replied the young officer. “But,” continued the other, “allowances ought to be made; dress is every thing, as our lieutenant-colonel used to say. Now, if it were not for that stripe on your trousers, your military cloak, and foraging cap--” “It's very likely you would not have guessed I was in the service,” said the officer. “Exactly so,” replied his companion. “But what say you, sir?--shall we breakfast together?--I'm a respectable man, and well known in most towns in the West of England. I travel in my own line, and do business extensively on commission, in old or damaged hops, especially in Wales, where I'm going the next trip the passage-boat makes.” “I can have no doubt of your respectability, sir,” said the officer; “and accept your invitation very cheerfully.” “Well, come along then, my boy!” exclaimed the traveller, descending, for a moment, from his dignity of deportment; “and we'll have a dish of chat. Have you been abroad?” “Yes, sir,” replied the young officer; “I had the honour of serving, with my regiment, at Waterloo.” “Bless my soul! I'm very glad, sir--very glad, indeed:--there are two or three points, about which I have long wished to have my mind settled, relative to that business;--but I never yet had the luck of meeting with an eye-witness of the battle. Why, sir,--it's the oddest thing in the world, you'll say;--but at the moment you addressed me, I was thinking of Hougoumont, and the other places whose names you recollect, no doubt, better than I do.--And what do you think put it into my head? Why, I'll tell you:--as I was walking along, the waves, with their bold flow, surmounted by spray, with the sunbeams dancing about them, reminded me of a regiment of cuirassiers advancing to the attack: so, to get a better appetite, in the enthusiasm of the moment I metamorphosed myself into a battery, and began playing away upon them with pebbles.--Child's work, you'll say, and derogatory to the character of a man of dignity.” “I do not exactly agree with you, sir,” said the officer; “great men have often indulged in the most childish amusements; we are told of one who caught flies, another who made himself a hobby-horse for his little family, and a third who enjoyed the frolics of a kitten:--on the authority of these, and many similar precedents which I recollect, there seems to be no good reason why a gentleman, who travels in South Wales, on commission in the damaged hop line, should not, in a moment of relaxation, Don-Quixotise on the basks of the Severn, by turning the waves of its rising tide into French cuirassiers, and pelting them with pebbles.” “Sir, I like your manner amazingly!” exclaimed the traveller; “and if you will take any little extra, such as a pork chop or so, with your chocolate--”