1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



221 



the adage I know from my own experience 

 than is attached to many sayings of the olden 

 time. More is the pity, says the moralizer ; so 

 say I; but I have known the most unsullied 

 pledges of love to he given by such lovers. And 

 do dear women not deserve it? they do. But I 

 am going from my subject : what is meant by a 

 Soldier's Sweet-heart ? If you;don't know, I will 

 tell you. 



After evening parade, soldiers generally go for 

 a recreative stroll, for the purpose of meeting 

 some fair maiden, in whose young bosom there is 

 an inclination to be beloved by the brave defend- 

 ers of Albion. The greeting, if strangers, is 

 this : 



Soldier. Good evening, my little beauty ; by 

 my bayonet, well pointed, but I wish I had so 

 sweet a girl for a sweet-heart. 



Maiden. Come, hands off, fellow ! don't you 

 go for to handle me you are mistaken in your 

 mark. 



Soldier. Me! you little black - eyed, rosy- 

 cheeked beauty ! I never miss my aim that is 

 always a dead one. 



Maiden. Then you have missed for the first 

 time. 



Soldier.. Oh, no, my dear it is only a flash in 

 the pan ; come, come, don't be so coy ; come and 

 kiss me. 



Maiden. There, take that. 

 Soldier. Pray, what do you call that? I'll have 

 you hung and gibbeted for striking your superior 

 officer ; I will, you little dimpled-cheeked nussey ; 

 you have knocked out my right eye. 



Maiden. So much the better ; it will save you 

 the trouble of shutting it when you make your 

 dead shot. 



Soldier. By my well-cleaned musket, but you 

 have hit your shot in right good earnest, and I am 

 resolved to take the forfeiture of striking a sol- 

 dier. 



Maiden. What is that? 



Soldier. Why, amongst men, blow for blow ; 

 but, from lovely woman, for a blow we take a 

 kiss. By Jove, but I would have the other eye 

 bunged up for another such a honied kiss ; so I 

 would, and call myself a gainer. 

 Maiden. Then there it is. 

 Soldier. And there it is ; now we are quits. 

 Maiden. You are a good-for-nothing fellow, so 

 you are; and I' 11 tell my mistress, so I will in- 

 deed I will. 



Soldier. Do, my little Phoebe, and I will serve 

 her the same. 



Maiden. Ay, but you dare not, for she is a 

 lady. 



Soldier. A lady! so much the better ; they are 

 as fond of kissing as their maids. 

 Maiden. Oh! but she is married. 

 Soldier. Better stiil ; then she understands it. 

 Maiden. Oh, dear ! there, it is four o'clock. 

 What will my mistress say? You may depend 

 upon it I will tell her of your imperance, so I 

 will. 



Soldier. So do, my little sloe-eyed dear; and 

 there is another kiss for you for your trouble. 



Maiden. And there is another box in the face 

 for you. 



Soldier. May my firelock miss fire, if I stand 

 it any longer ; so I will e'en make up the round 

 dozen. 

 Maiden. Is that what you call a round dozen ? 



Soldier. Yes, my dear, a soldier's dozen. 



Maiden. Do you pay all your debts r.s ho- 

 nestly? 



Soldier. To the fair sex, certainly, my pretty 

 little black-eyed, black-haired, rosy-cheeked dear. 

 If I had you for a sweet-heart, I would not change 

 places with the great captain of the age ; I should 

 be the happiest man in England. 



Maiden. Yes, if all the rest are out of it. 



Soldier. But, my love 



Maiden. Your love, indeed! 



Soldier. I hope you will be. 



Maiden. What should I see in your ugly face 

 to become your love, I should like to know? 



Soldier. Not ugly, either that's too bad; I 

 flatter me that there are worse going mortals than 

 myself. 



Maiden. But you are only a private soldier. 



Soldier. Pardon me, my dear ; I am a lance- 

 corporal. 



Maiden, A lance-corporal! what is that? 



Seldier. An officer who carries a lance. 



Maiden. Then I beg your corporalship's par- 

 don. Hark! half-past four as I am a sinner! I 

 shall certainly lose my place. 



Soldier. I hope so ; I have one for you. 



Maiden. Where? 



Soldier. In my heart. 



Maiden. Deary me ! have soldiers got hearts? 



Soldier. Yes, and faithful ones, too. 



Maiden. Indeed ! Well, I can really stay no 

 longer; but mind you never speak to me again ; 

 and if you come past our house No. 2, Love 

 Lane, you may depend upon what you will re- 

 ceive. 



Soldier. Good bye, lovely creature. 



Maiden. Goodbye, you impudent fellow. 



Thus soldiers make love, and this surreptitious 

 courtship forms the misery of both for life. My 

 heart has ached, when marching through England, 

 to see groups of these unfortunates, following 

 their lovers hundreds of miles, to see them embark 

 for foreign stations, when the agonizing grief of 

 those faithful women was truly heart-rending. 

 On their re-landing, they are there to hail their 

 lovers' return, and welcome them to their native 

 land. 



Travels and Researches of Eminent Eng- 

 lish Missionaries, fyc. by Andrew Picken. 

 A commendable attempt to separate 

 the general information discoverable in 

 the travels of missionaries, their re- 

 searches, and adventures, from the com- 

 mon details of missionary labours. 

 Within the last half century many 

 countries have been visited bv them, 

 to which the pursuits of the philosopher 

 or the merchant, or the mere gazer at 

 wonders, seldom conduct them. No 

 mere occasional visitor, again, whatever 

 may be his immediate object, can have 

 the opportunities which the missionary 

 has. He mingles and lives among the 

 people, and long enough often to pene- 

 trate below the surface, and strip off the 

 ostensible motives of action. But rarely 

 has it happened that the missionary him- 

 self has been a man qualified to make 

 the best use of his opportunities ; some, 

 however, have, and the compiler's object 



