498 The Drill-Serjeant. [Nov. 
able, at the same time that he has maintained the, proper dignity of the 
army. To-morrow he is stiff and stately again, performing his old dut 
of setting up in‘due order men for the sport “of! War, ' that fearful 
skittle-player.’ And, indeed, how great must ‘bé’the satisfaction’of the 
Drill-Serjeant when he thinks that, by his' kindly solicitudes his'Majes- 
ty’s subjects will “ die with decency” and “ in’ closé-order.”’ Soothing 
reflection ! i ; 
We may liken a Recruiting-Serjeant to a ‘sturdy woodman—a ’ Drill- 
Serjeant toacarpenter. Let us take a dozen vigorous young elms,with 
the same number of bluff-cheeked, straddling rustics. >» How picturesque 
and inviting do the green waving elms appear! Whilst’ we look at them, 
our love and admiration of the natural so wholly possess us, that we 
cannot for a moment bring ourselves to imagine the most beautiful 
offspring of teeming earth cut up into boot-jacks or broom-handles + in 
the very idea there is sacrilege to the sylvan deities. ‘The woodnian, 
however, lays the axe to the elms (the forest groans'at the slaughter); 
the carpenter comes up with his basket of tools across his shoulder ;'and 
at a Christmas dinner we may by chance admire the extraordinary polish 
of our eating-knife, little thinking it owes its lustre ‘to |the: elm which 
shadowed us at Midsummer. Now for our rustics: We meet ithem in 
green lanes, striding like young ogres—carelessness ‘in their very hat- 
buckle—a scorn of ceremony in the significant tuck-up of their: smock- 
frock. The Recruiting-Serjeant spirits them away from fields to which 
Pade were the chief adornment, and the Drill-Serjeant begins: his 
abour. 
And now, reader, behold some martial carpentry and joinery: Our 
Drill-Serjeant hath but few implements: as eye, voice, hand, leg, rattan. 
These few tools serve him for every purpose, and with: them he brings 
down a human carcass, though at first as unwieldy asa‘ bull, to, the 
slimness and elegance of the roe. There are the dozen mishapen logs 
before him ; the foliage of their heads gone with the elm leaves; as also 
their bark—their “ rough pash,”—the frocks and wide breeches. 
*= Mercy on us! there was a stroke of handiwork! the Serjeant with 
but one word has driven a wedge into the very breast» of ‘that pale- 
looking youngster, whose eyelid shakes as though it would dam up a 
tear! Perhaps the poor wretch is now thinking of yellow corn and 
harvest-home. Another skilful touch, and the Serjeant hath fairly 
chiselled away some inches of the shoulder of that flaxen-headed tyro : 
and see how he is rounding off that mottled set of knuckles, whilst: the 
owner redly, but dumbly, sympathizes with their sufferings. There is. no 
part left untouched by our Serjeant; he by turns saws, planes, pierces, 
and thumps every limb and every joint; applies scouring paper :to any 
little knot or ruggedness, until man, glorious man, the“ paragonjof 
animals,” fears no competition in stateliness of march; or glibness,,of 
movement, from either peacock or Punch. : ritloiger 
The Drill-Serjeant hath but little complacency in him;  hejist.a 
thing to be reverenced, not doated upon; we fear him and his mysteries ; 
even his good-humour startles, for it is at once.as blustering and_as,,ip- 
significant as a report of blank-cartridge. -Again,- I) says: the Drill- 
Serjeant is to be approached with awe ; smirking flies the majesty of his 
rattan. He is the despot of joints: and we rub our hands with glee, 
and our very toes glow again, when we reflect they are not of his 
dominions. J. 
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