"A first-rate one?" Frank asked, eagerly.
"I am glad!" and the delighted pupil fairly jumped for joy.
From that time the two got on capitally together. Frank soon become accustomed to the veteran's eccentric manners, and made great proficiency in his exercises. And it was not long before the hard-featured old drummer began to manifest, in his way, a great deal of friendly interest in his young pupil.
"Now, my boy," said he one day, after Frank had been practising successfully the "seven-stroke roll," greatly to the satisfaction of his instructor,--"now, my boy, I think you can be safely intrusted with your comrade."
"Yes, your wife." And the grizzly mustache curled with quiet humor.
"I must be a married man without knowing it!" laughed Frank.
"Your ship, then," said the veteran, dryly. "Come with me."
And conducting Frank to his tent, he took from one side an object covered with a blanket.
"My ship!" cried Frank, joyfully, already guessing what treasure was now to be his.
"Your sword, then, if you like that name better. For what his sword is to a hero, what his ship is to a true sailor, what a wife is to a true husband,--such, my young friend, to a genuine drummer is his drum."
So saying, the veteran threw aside the covering, and presented to his pupil the long-coveted prize. The boy's eyes shone with pleasure, and (as he wrote that evening to his parents) he was so happy he could have hugged both the old drummer and the new drum.
"I selected it for you, and you may be sure it is a good one. It won't be any handsomer, but, if you use it well, it won't be really much the worse, for going through a campaign or two with you. For it is with drums as it is with the drummers; they grow old, and get some honorable scratches, and some unlucky bruises, and now and then a broken head; but, God prospering them, they come out, at last, ugly to look at, perhaps" (the veteran stroked his mustache), "but well-seasoned, and sound, and very truly at your service."
Frank thought be saw a tear in his twinkling gray eye, and he was so much affected by it, that he caught his hand in both of his, exclaiming, "Bless you, dear sir! Dear, good sir, God bless you!"
The old man winked away the moisture from his eye, smiling still, but with a quivering lip, and patted him gently on the shoulder, without saying a word.