A SMALL SOLDIER.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 301, 28 December 1870, Page 2

A SMALL SOLDIER.

As I was riding to my quarters one evening I met certainly the smallest soldier I had ever yet seen. lie was completely equipped in uniform, helmet, knapsack, and sidearms, but no needle ride. The poor little fellow could S2arcely have lifted it. Ho was nine years old, and by no means tall for his age. HestDpped me, and in Mie most matter of-fact way, asked me if I could direct him to the Town CommandanL's office. I asked him what on earth he was, and what he wanted with the Town Commandant—so completely was I taken aback by the Lilipution apparition. Drawing himself up to his lull height, and saluting in the strictest maimer, he informed me that he belonged to the Gist Pomeranian Regiment, which had just marched in, and that he wanted quarters.. So absurdly ridiculous, and at the same time so thoroughly military, was the whole proceeding, that I burst into a lit of laughter; and lilting the little manuikin into my fa Idle, I carried him off in triumph to the headquarter mess, where, I need hardly say, he was well taken c ire of. The poor boy's story is a melancholy one. Of his parents he knew nothing. His early recollections were of the barracks, where from day to day the sympathy, hospitality, and kindness that are part and parcel of the soldier's character were never denied to the poor helpless outcast. His manly, amusing and attractive ways soon ran-de him a favourite, and the men out of their pay, saved a sufficient sum to buy the clothing of a Pomeranian Fusilier. The boy's home was with the 61st —the first worde of kindness and encouragement he heard were from the rough soldiers who surrounded him. Bold and manly in his little ways, he found the true road to the soldiers' hearts; and when their counlry bade them go forth to fight, the little outcast was the first to bind his slender all upon his shoulder, and go forth with his friends to meet a soldiers' fate.— Telegraph's correspondent.