202 TOM Bellamy's adventure. 



These necessary preliminaries having been attended to, Tom began; 

 but I will here give the nan'ator's own words, and wish I could 

 faithfully pourti'ay his manner. 



" You must know, then, Harry, that when I was about eighteen 

 years of age, I was one fine morning abundantly gratified at seeing 



my name figuring in the gazette, as ' regiment ; Thomas Bellamy, 



gentleman, to be ensign, vice Green promoted.' — Hurrah ! shouted 

 I, with such vigour, as brought my respected progenitors into the 

 room, thinking I had suddenly gone mad. When they came in I 

 was standing up, waving the newspaper over my head, and con- 

 tinuing to shout. ' What's ihe matter, Tom,' said my father, ' is 

 your aunt Moody dead ?' — ' Or have you won a prize in the lottery,' 

 said my mother. ' Neither,' I answered ; ' but look here,' pointing 

 out with great diligence the astounding paragraph. ' Oh !' said my 

 father, giving a prolonged whistle, putting his hands in his pockets, 

 and slightly raising his eyebrows; 'is that all, Tom?' * Yes,' 

 said I. 'Oh! then, never mind shouting,' said he; 'glory and 

 five shillings a-day are all very well in their way, Tom, but nothing 

 much to shout about after all.' On getting a little more settled, 

 and receiving the official order to join my regiment, then stationed 

 at (we will give it a name, Harry) Cherwood, I set to work to make 

 all ready for a start in search of ' the bubble reputation.' All my 

 afllairs being settled, I bade adieu to my admiring friends, and in 

 due time arrived at Cherwood, where I met with a kind reception 

 from my brother oflicers. I must give you some idea of them ; 

 they had just arrived from India, and having been successful in 

 several very gallant affairs, came home with a very high opinion of the 

 regiment in general, and each man of hhnself in particular. They 

 were making themselves quite popular at Cherwood, when I arrived, 

 giving balls, races, &c., and completely astonishing the town from its 

 propriety. After my first kind reception, they amused themselves 

 mightily with quizzing me, constantly offering to make bets that if I 

 was placed with a parly of New Zealand savages, I should be picked 

 out from them as a civilized man. This, others pretended to dispute, 

 and said I might safely venture to appear as Orson, the wild man of 

 the woods, without being recognised. Then, after a time, it was 

 imagined that I began to have some appearance of belonging to the 



