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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Horse's Tale, by Mark Twain
+(#12 in our series by Mark Twain)
+
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: A Horse's Tale
+
+Author: Mark Twain
+
+Release Date: October, 1997  [EBook #1086]
+[This file was first posted on October 21, 1997]
+[Most recently updated: June 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A HORSE'S TALE ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+A HORSE'S TALE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--SOLDIER BOY--PRIVATELY TO HIMSELF
+
+
+
+I am Buffalo Bill's horse.  I have spent my life under his saddle--
+with him in it, too, and he is good for two hundred pounds, without
+his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he
+is out on the war-path and has his batteries belted on.  He is over
+six feet, is young, hasn't an ounce of waste flesh, is straight,
+graceful, springy in his motions, quick as a cat, and has a
+handsome face, and black hair dangling down on his shoulders, and
+is beautiful to look at; and nobody is braver than he is, and
+nobody is stronger, except myself.  Yes, a person that doubts that
+he is fine to see should see him in his beaded buck-skins, on my
+back and his rifle peeping above his shoulder, chasing a hostile
+trail, with me going like the wind and his hair streaming out
+behind from the shelter of his broad slouch.  Yes, he is a sight to
+look at then--and I'm part of it myself.
+
+I am his favorite horse, out of dozens.  Big as he is, I have
+carried him eighty-one miles between nightfall and sunrise on the
+scout; and I am good for fifty, day in and day out, and all the
+time.  I am not large, but I am built on a business basis.  I have
+carried him thousands and thousands of miles on scout duty for the
+army, and there's not a gorge, nor a pass, nor a valley, nor a
+fort, nor a trading post, nor a buffalo-range in the whole sweep of
+the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains that we don't know as well
+as we know the bugle-calls.  He is Chief of Scouts to the Army of
+the Frontier, and it makes us very important.  In such a position
+as I hold in the military service one needs to be of good family
+and possess an education much above the common to be worthy of the
+place.  I am the best-educated horse outside of the hippodrome,
+everybody says, and the best-mannered.  It may be so, it is not for
+me to say; modesty is the best policy, I think.  Buffalo Bill
+taught me the most of what I know, my mother taught me much, and I
+taught myself the rest.  Lay a row of moccasins before me--Pawnee,
+Sioux, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, and as many other tribes as
+you please--and I can name the tribe every moccasin belongs to by
+the make of it.  Name it in horse-talk, and could do it in American
+if I had speech.
+
+I know some of the Indian signs--the signs they make with their
+hands, and by signal-fires at night and columns of smoke by day.
+Buffalo Bill taught me how to drag wounded soldiers out of the line
+of fire with my teeth; and I've done it, too; at least I've dragged
+HIM out of the battle when he was wounded.  And not just once, but
+twice.  Yes, I know a lot of things.  I remember forms, and gaits,
+and faces; and you can't disguise a person that's done me a
+kindness so that I won't know him thereafter wherever I find him.
+I know the art of searching for a trail, and I know the stale track
+from the fresh.  I can keep a trail all by myself, with Buffalo
+Bill asleep in the saddle; ask him--he will tell you so.  Many a
+time, when he has ridden all night, he has said to me at dawn,
+"Take the watch, Boy; if the trail freshens, call me."  Then he
+goes to sleep.  He knows he can trust me, because I have a
+reputation.  A scout horse that has a reputation does not play with
+it.
+
+My mother was all American--no alkali-spider about HER, I can tell
+you; she was of the best blood of Kentucky, the bluest Blue-grass
+aristocracy, very proud and acrimonious--or maybe it is
+ceremonious.  I don't know which it is.  But it is no matter; size
+is the main thing about a word, and that one's up to standard.  She
+spent her military life as colonel of the Tenth Dragoons, and saw a
+deal of rough service--distinguished service it was, too.  I mean,
+she CARRIED the Colonel; but it's all the same.  Where would he be
+without his horse?  He wouldn't arrive.  It takes two to make a
+colonel of dragoons.  She was a fine dragoon horse, but never got
+above that.  She was strong enough for the scout service, and had
+the endurance, too, but she couldn't quite come up to the speed
+required; a scout horse has to have steel in his muscle and
+lightning in his blood.
+
+My father was a bronco.  Nothing as to lineage--that is, nothing as
+to recent lineage--but plenty good enough when you go a good way
+back.  When Professor Marsh was out here hunting bones for the
+chapel of Yale University he found skeletons of horses no bigger
+than a fox, bedded in the rocks, and he said they were ancestors of
+my father.  My mother heard him say it; and he said those skeletons
+were two million years old, which astonished her and made her
+Kentucky pretensions look small and pretty antiphonal, not to say
+oblique.  Let me see. . . . I used to know the meaning of those
+words, but . . . well, it was years ago, and 'tisn't as vivid now
+as it was when they were fresh.  That sort of words doesn't keep,
+in the kind of climate we have out here.  Professor Marsh said
+those skeletons were fossils.  So that makes me part blue grass and
+part fossil; if there is any older or better stock, you will have
+to look for it among the Four Hundred, I reckon.  I am satisfied
+with it.  And am a happy horse, too, though born out of wedlock.
+
+And now we are back at Fort Paxton once more, after a forty-day
+scout, away up as far as the Big Horn.  Everything quiet.  Crows
+and Blackfeet squabbling--as usual--but no outbreaks, and settlers
+feeling fairly easy.
+
+The Seventh Cavalry still in garrison, here; also the Ninth
+Dragoons, two artillery companies, and some infantry.  All glad to
+see me, including General Alison, commandant.  The officers' ladies
+and children well, and called upon me--with sugar.  Colonel Drake,
+Seventh Cavalry, said some pleasant things; Mrs. Drake was very
+complimentary; also Captain and Mrs. Marsh, Company B, Seventh
+Cavalry; also the Chaplain, who is always kind and pleasant to me,
+because I kicked the lungs out of a trader once.  It was Tommy
+Drake and Fanny Marsh that furnished the sugar--nice children, the
+nicest at the post, I think.
+
+That poor orphan child is on her way from France--everybody is full
+of the subject.  Her father was General Alison's brother; married a
+beautiful young Spanish lady ten years ago, and has never been in
+America since.  They lived in Spain a year or two, then went to
+France.  Both died some months ago.  This little girl that is
+coming is the only child.  General Alison is glad to have her.  He
+has never seen her.  He is a very nice old bachelor, but is an old
+bachelor just the same and isn't more than about a year this side
+of retirement by age limit; and so what does he know about taking
+care of a little maid nine years old?  If I could have her it would
+be another matter, for I know all about children, and they adore
+me.  Buffalo Bill will tell you so himself.
+
+I have some of this news from over-hearing the garrison-gossip, the
+rest of it I got from Potter, the General's dog.  Potter is the
+great Dane.  He is privileged, all over the post, like Shekels, the
+Seventh Cavalry's dog, and visits everybody's quarters and picks up
+everything that is going, in the way of news.  Potter has no
+imagination, and no great deal of culture, perhaps, but he has a
+historical mind and a good memory, and so he is the person I depend
+upon mainly to post me up when I get back from a scout.  That is,
+if Shekels is out on depredation and I can't get hold of him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--LETTER FROM ROUEN--TO GENERAL ALISON
+
+
+
+My dear Brother-in-Law,--Please let me write again in Spanish, I
+cannot trust my English, and I am aware, from what your brother
+used to say, that army officers educated at the Military Academy of
+the United States are taught our tongue.  It is as I told you in my
+other letter:  both my poor sister and her husband, when they found
+they could not recover, expressed the wish that you should have
+their little Catherine--as knowing that you would presently be
+retired from the army--rather than that she should remain with me,
+who am broken in health, or go to your mother in California, whose
+health is also frail.
+
+You do not know the child, therefore I must tell you something
+about her.  You will not be ashamed of her looks, for she is a copy
+in little of her beautiful mother--and it is that Andalusian beauty
+which is not surpassable, even in your country.  She has her
+mother's charm and grace and good heart and sense of justice, and
+she has her father's vivacity and cheerfulness and pluck and spirit
+of enterprise, with the affectionate disposition and sincerity of
+both parents.
+
+My sister pined for her Spanish home all these years of exile; she
+was always talking of Spain to the child, and tending and
+nourishing the love of Spain in the little thing's heart as a
+precious flower; and she died happy in the knowledge that the
+fruitage of her patriotic labors was as rich as even she could
+desire.
+
+Cathy is a sufficiently good little scholar, for her nine years;
+her mother taught her Spanish herself, and kept it always fresh
+upon her ear and her tongue by hardly ever speaking with her in any
+other tongue; her father was her English teacher, and talked with
+her in that language almost exclusively; French has been her
+everyday speech for more than seven years among her playmates here;
+she has a good working use of governess--German and Italian.  It is
+true that there is always a faint foreign fragrance about her
+speech, no matter what language she is talking, but it is only just
+noticeable, nothing more, and is rather a charm than a mar, I
+think.  In the ordinary child-studies Cathy is neither before nor
+behind the average child of nine, I should say.  But I can say this
+for her:  in love for her friends and in high-mindedness and good-
+heartedness she has not many equals, and in my opinion no
+superiors.  And I beg of you, let her have her way with the dumb
+animals--they are her worship.  It is an inheritance from her
+mother.  She knows but little of cruelties and oppressions--keep
+them from her sight if you can.  She would flare up at them and
+make trouble, in her small but quite decided and resolute way; for
+she has a character of her own, and lacks neither promptness nor
+initiative.  Sometimes her judgment is at fault, but I think her
+intentions are always right.  Once when she was a little creature
+of three or four years she suddenly brought her tiny foot down upon
+the floor in an apparent outbreak of indignation, then fetched it a
+backward wipe, and stooped down to examine the result.  Her mother
+said:
+
+"Why, what is it, child?  What has stirred you so?"
+
+"Mamma, the big ant was trying to kill the little one."
+
+"And so you protected the little one."
+
+"Yes, manure, because he had no friend, and I wouldn't let the big
+one kill him."
+
+"But you have killed them both."
+
+Cathy was distressed, and her lip trembled.  She picked up the
+remains and laid them upon her palm, and said:
+
+"Poor little anty, I'm so sorry; and I didn't mean to kill you, but
+there wasn't any other way to save you, it was such a hurry."
+
+She is a dear and sweet little lady, and when she goes it will give
+me a sore heart.  But she will be happy with you, and if your heart
+is old and tired, give it into her keeping; she will make it young
+again, she will refresh it, she will make it sing.  Be good to her,
+for all our sakes!
+
+My exile will soon be over now.  As soon as I am a little stronger
+I shall see my Spain again; and that will make me young again!
+
+MERCEDES.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--GENERAL ALISON TO HIS MOTHER
+
+
+
+I am glad to know that you are all well, in San Bernardino.
+
+. . . That grandchild of yours has been here--well, I do not quite
+know how many days it is; nobody can keep account of days or
+anything else where she is!  Mother, she did what the Indians were
+never able to do.  She took the Fort--took it the first day!  Took
+me, too; took the colonels, the captains, the women, the children,
+and the dumb brutes; took Buffalo Bill, and all his scouts; took
+the garrison--to the last man; and in forty-eight hours the Indian
+encampment was hers, illustrious old Thunder-Bird and all.  Do I
+seem to have lost my solemnity, my gravity, my poise, my dignity?
+You would lose your own, in my circumstances.  Mother, you never
+saw such a winning little devil.  She is all energy, and spirit,
+and sunshine, and interest in everybody and everything, and pours
+out her prodigal love upon every creature that will take it, high
+or low, Christian or pagan, feathered or furred; and none has
+declined it to date, and none ever will, I think.  But she has a
+temper, and sometimes it catches fire and flames up, and is likely
+to burn whatever is near it; but it is soon over, the passion goes
+as quickly as it comes.  Of course she has an Indian name already;
+Indians always rechristen a stranger early.  Thunder-Bird attended
+to her case.  He gave her the Indian equivalent for firebug, or
+fire-fly.  He said:
+
+"'Times, ver' quiet, ver' soft, like summer night, but when she mad
+she blaze."
+
+Isn't it good?  Can't you see the flare?  She's beautiful, mother,
+beautiful as a picture; and there is a touch of you in her face,
+and of her father--poor George! and in her unresting activities,
+and her fearless ways, and her sunbursts and cloudbursts, she is
+always bringing George back to me.  These impulsive natures are
+dramatic.  George was dramatic, so is this Lightning-Bug, so is
+Buffalo Bill.  When Cathy first arrived--it was in the forenoon--
+Buffalo Bill was away, carrying orders to Major Fuller, at Five
+Forks, up in the Clayton Hills.  At mid-afternoon I was at my desk,
+trying to work, and this sprite had been making it impossible for
+half an hour.  At last I said:
+
+"Oh, you bewitching little scamp, CAN'T you be quiet just a minute
+or two, and let your poor old uncle attend to a part of his
+duties?"
+
+"I'll try, uncle; I will, indeed," she said.
+
+"Well, then, that's a good child--kiss me.  Now, then, sit up in
+that chair, and set your eye on that clock.  There--that's right.
+If you stir--if you so much as wink--for four whole minutes, I'll
+bite you!"
+
+It was very sweet and humble and obedient she looked, sitting
+there, still as a mouse; I could hardly keep from setting her free
+and telling her to make as much racket as she wanted to.  During as
+much as two minutes there was a most unnatural and heavenly quiet
+and repose, then Buffalo Bill came thundering up to the door in all
+his scout finery, flung himself out of the saddle, said to his
+horse, "Wait for me, Boy," and stepped in, and stopped dead in his
+tracks--gazing at the child.  She forgot orders, and was on the
+floor in a moment, saying:
+
+"Oh, you are so beautiful!  Do you like me?"
+
+"No, I don't, I love you!" and he gathered her up with a hug, and
+then set her on his shoulder--apparently nine feet from the floor.
+
+She was at home.  She played with his long hair, and admired his
+big hands and his clothes and his carbine, and asked question after
+question, as fast as he could answer, until I excused them both for
+half an hour, in order to have a chance to finish my work.  Then I
+heard Cathy exclaiming over Soldier Boy; and he was worthy of her
+raptures, for he is a wonder of a horse, and has a reputation which
+is as shining as his own silken hide.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--CATHY TO HER AUNT MERCEDES
+
+
+
+Oh, it is wonderful here, aunty dear, just paradise!  Oh, if you
+could only see it! everything so wild and lovely; such grand
+plains, stretching such miles and miles and miles, all the most
+delicious velvety sand and sage-brush, and rabbits as big as a dog,
+and such tall and noble jackassful ears that that is what they name
+them by; and such vast mountains, and so rugged and craggy and
+lofty, with cloud-shawls wrapped around their shoulders, and
+looking so solemn and awful and satisfied; and the charming
+Indians, oh, how you would dote on them, aunty dear, and they would
+on you, too, and they would let you hold their babies, the way they
+do me, and they ARE the fattest, and brownest, and sweetest little
+things, and never cry, and wouldn't if they had pins sticking in
+them, which they haven't, because they are poor and can't afford
+it; and the horses and mules and cattle and dogs--hundreds and
+hundreds and hundreds, and not an animal that you can't do what you
+please with, except uncle Thomas, but _I_ don't mind him, he's
+lovely; and oh, if you could hear the bugles:  TOO--TOO--TOO-TOO--
+TOO--TOO, and so on--perfectly beautiful!  Do you recognize that
+one?  It's the first toots of the reveille; it goes, dear me, SO
+early in the morning!--then I and every other soldier on the whole
+place are up and out in a minute, except uncle Thomas, who is most
+unaccountably lazy, I don't know why, but I have talked to him
+about it, and I reckon it will be better, now.  He hasn't any
+faults much, and is charming and sweet, like Buffalo Bill, and
+Thunder-Bird, and Mammy Dorcas, and Soldier Boy, and Shekels, and
+Potter, and Sour-Mash, and--well, they're ALL that, just angels, as
+you may say.
+
+The very first day I came, I don't know how long ago it was,
+Buffalo Bill took me on Soldier Boy to Thunder-Bird's camp, not the
+big one which is out on the plain, which is White Cloud's, he took
+me to THAT one next day, but this one is four or five miles up in
+the hills and crags, where there is a great shut-in meadow, full of
+Indian lodges and dogs and squaws and everything that is
+interesting, and a brook of the clearest water running through it,
+with white pebbles on the bottom and trees all along the banks cool
+and shady and good to wade in, and as the sun goes down it is
+dimmish in there, but away up against the sky you see the big peaks
+towering up and shining bright and vivid in the sun, and sometimes
+an eagle sailing by them, not flapping a wing, the same as if he
+was asleep; and young Indians and girls romping and laughing and
+carrying on, around the spring and the pool, and not much clothes
+on except the girls, and dogs fighting, and the squaws busy at
+work, and the bucks busy resting, and the old men sitting in a
+bunch smoking, and passing the pipe not to the left but to the
+right, which means there's been a row in the camp and they are
+settling it if they can, and children playing JUST the same as any
+other children, and little boys shooting at a mark with bows, and I
+cuffed one of them because he hit a dog with a club that wasn't
+doing anything, and he resented it but before long he wished he
+hadn't:  but this sentence is getting too long and I will start
+another.  Thunder-Bird put on his Sunday-best war outfit to let me
+see him, and he was splendid to look at, with his face painted red
+and bright and intense like a fire-coal and a valance of eagle
+feathers from the top of his head all down his back, and he had his
+tomahawk, too, and his pipe, which has a stem which is longer than
+my arm, and I never had such a good time in an Indian camp in my
+life, and I learned a lot of words of the language, and next day BB
+took me to the camp out on the Plains, four miles, and I had
+another good time and got acquainted with some more Indians and
+dogs; and the big chief, by the name of White Cloud, gave me a
+pretty little bow and arrows and I gave him my red sash-ribbon, and
+in four days I could shoot very well with it and beat any white boy
+of my size at the post; and I have been to those camps plenty of
+times since; and I have learned to ride, too, BB taught me, and
+every day he practises me and praises me, and every time I do
+better than ever he lets me have a scamper on Soldier Boy, and
+THAT'S the last agony of pleasure! for he is the charmingest horse,
+and so beautiful and shiny and black, and hasn't another color on
+him anywhere, except a white star in his forehead, not just an
+imitation star, but a real one, with four points, shaped exactly
+like a star that's hand-made, and if you should cover him all up
+but his star you would know him anywhere, even in Jerusalem or
+Australia, by that.  And I got acquainted with a good many of the
+Seventh Cavalry, and the dragoons, and officers, and families, and
+horses, in the first few days, and some more in the next few and
+the next few and the next few, and now I know more soldiers and
+horses than you can think, no matter how hard you try.  I am
+keeping up my studies every now and then, but there isn't much time
+for it.  I love you so! and I send you a hug and a kiss.
+
+CATHY.
+
+P.S.--I belong to the Seventh Cavalry and Ninth Dragoons, I am an
+officer, too, and do not have to work on account of not getting any
+wages.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--GENERAL ALISON TO MERCEDES
+
+
+
+She has been with us a good nice long time, now.  You are troubled
+about your sprite because this is such a wild frontier, hundreds of
+miles from civilization, and peopled only by wandering tribes of
+savages?  You fear for her safety?  Give yourself no uneasiness
+about her.  Dear me, she's in a nursery! and she's got more than
+eighteen hundred nurses.  It would distress the garrison to suspect
+that you think they can't take care of her.  They think they can.
+They would tell you so themselves.  You see, the Seventh Cavalry
+has never had a child of its very own before, and neither has the
+Ninth Dragoons; and so they are like all new mothers, they think
+there is no other child like theirs, no other child so wonderful,
+none that is so worthy to be faithfully and tenderly looked after
+and protected.  These bronzed veterans of mine are very good
+mothers, I think, and wiser than some other mothers; for they let
+her take lots of risks, and it is a good education for her; and the
+more risks she takes and comes successfully out of, the prouder
+they are of her.  They adopted her, with grave and formal military
+ceremonies of their own invention--solemnities is the truer word;
+solemnities that were so profoundly solemn and earnest, that the
+spectacle would have been comical if it hadn't been so touching.
+It was a good show, and as stately and complex as guard-mount and
+the trooping of the colors; and it had its own special music,
+composed for the occasion by the bandmaster of the Seventh; and the
+child was as serious as the most serious war-worn soldier of them
+all; and finally when they throned her upon the shoulder of the
+oldest veteran, and pronounced her "well and truly adopted," and
+the bands struck up and all saluted and she saluted in return, it
+was better and more moving than any kindred thing I have seen on
+the stage, because stage things are make-believe, but this was real
+and the players' hearts were in it.
+
+It happened several weeks ago, and was followed by some additional
+solemnities.  The men created a couple of new ranks, thitherto
+unknown to the army regulations, and conferred them upon Cathy,
+with ceremonies suitable to a duke.  So now she is Corporal-General
+of the Seventh Cavalry, and Flag-Lieutenant of the Ninth Dragoons,
+with the privilege (decreed by the men) of writing U.S.A. after her
+name!  Also, they presented her a pair of shoulder-straps--both
+dark blue, the one with F. L. on it, the other with C. G.  Also, a
+sword.  She wears them.  Finally, they granted her the salute.  I
+am witness that that ceremony is faithfully observed by both
+parties--and most gravely and decorously, too.  I have never seen a
+soldier smile yet, while delivering it, nor Cathy in returning it.
+
+Ostensibly I was not present at these proceedings, and am ignorant
+of them; but I was where I could see.  I was afraid of one thing--
+the jealousy of the other children of the post; but there is
+nothing of that, I am glad to say.  On the contrary, they are proud
+of their comrade and her honors.  It is a surprising thing, but it
+is true.  The children are devoted to Cathy, for she has turned
+their dull frontier life into a sort of continuous festival; also
+they know her for a stanch and steady friend, a friend who can
+always be depended upon, and does not change with the weather.
+
+She has become a rather extraordinary rider, under the tutorship of
+a more than extraordinary teacher--BB, which is her pet name for
+Buffalo Bill.  She pronounces it beeby.  He has not only taught her
+seventeen ways of breaking her neck, but twenty-two ways of
+avoiding it.  He has infused into her the best and surest
+protection of a horseman--CONFIDENCE.  He did it gradually,
+systematically, little by little, a step at a time, and each step
+made sure before the next was essayed.  And so he inched her along
+up through terrors that had been discounted by training before she
+reached them, and therefore were not recognizable as terrors when
+she got to them.  Well, she is a daring little rider, now, and is
+perfect in what she knows of horsemanship.  By-and-by she will know
+the art like a West Point cadet, and will exercise it as
+fearlessly.  She doesn't know anything about side-saddles.  Does
+that distress you?  And she is a fine performer, without any saddle
+at all.  Does that discomfort you?  Do not let it; she is not in
+any danger, I give you my word.
+
+You said that if my heart was old and tired she would refresh it,
+and you said truly.  I do not know how I got along without her,
+before.  I was a forlorn old tree, but now that this blossoming
+vine has wound itself about me and become the life of my life, it
+is very different.  As a furnisher of business for me and for Mammy
+Dorcas she is exhaustlessly competent, but I like my share of it
+and of course Dorcas likes hers, for Dorcas "raised" George, and
+Cathy is George over again in so many ways that she brings back
+Dorcas's youth and the joys of that long-vanished time.  My father
+tried to set Dorcas free twenty years ago, when we still lived in
+Virginia, but without success; she considered herself a member of
+the family, and wouldn't go.  And so, a member of the family she
+remained, and has held that position unchallenged ever since, and
+holds it now; for when my mother sent her here from San Bernardino
+when we learned that Cathy was coming, she only changed from one
+division of the family to the other.  She has the warm heart of her
+race, and its lavish affections, and when Cathy arrived the pair
+were mother and child in five minutes, and that is what they are to
+date and will continue.  Dorcas really thinks she raised George,
+and that is one of her prides, but perhaps it was a mutual raising,
+for their ages were the same--thirteen years short of mine.  But
+they were playmates, at any rate; as regards that, there is no room
+for dispute.
+
+Cathy thinks Dorcas is the best Catholic in America except herself.
+She could not pay any one a higher compliment than that, and Dorcas
+could not receive one that would please her better.  Dorcas is
+satisfied that there has never been a more wonderful child than
+Cathy.  She has conceived the curious idea that Cathy is TWINS, and
+that one of them is a boy-twin and failed to get segregated--got
+submerged, is the idea.  To argue with her that this is nonsense is
+a waste of breath--her mind is made up, and arguments do not affect
+it.  She says:
+
+"Look at her; she loves dolls, and girl-plays, and everything a
+girl loves, and she's gentle and sweet, and ain't cruel to dumb
+brutes--now that's the girl-twin, but she loves boy-plays, and
+drums and fifes and soldiering, and rough-riding, and ain't afraid
+of anybody or anything--and that's the boy-twin; 'deed you needn't
+tell ME she's only ONE child; no, sir, she's twins, and one of them
+got shet up out of sight.  Out of sight, but that don't make any
+difference, that boy is in there, and you can see him look out of
+her eyes when her temper is up."
+
+Then Dorcas went on, in her simple and earnest way, to furnish
+illustrations.
+
+"Look at that raven, Marse Tom.  Would anybody befriend a raven but
+that child?  Of course they wouldn't; it ain't natural.  Well, the
+Injun boy had the raven tied up, and was all the time plaguing it
+and starving it, and she pitied the po' thing, and tried to buy it
+from the boy, and the tears was in her eyes.  That was the girl-
+twin, you see.  She offered him her thimble, and he flung it down;
+she offered him all the doughnuts she had, which was two, and he
+flung them down; she offered him half a paper of pins, worth forty
+ravens, and he made a mouth at her and jabbed one of them in the
+raven's back.  That was the limit, you know.  It called for the
+other twin.  Her eyes blazed up, and she jumped for him like a
+wild-cat, and when she was done with him she was rags and he wasn't
+anything but an allegory.  That was most undoubtedly the other
+twin, you see, coming to the front.  No, sir; don't tell ME he
+ain't in there.  I've seen him with my own eyes--and plenty of
+times, at that."
+
+"Allegory?  What is an allegory?"
+
+"I don't know, Marse Tom, it's one of her words; she loves the big
+ones, you know, and I pick them up from her; they sound good and I
+can't help it."
+
+"What happened after she had converted the boy into an allegory?"
+
+"Why, she untied the raven and confiscated him by force and fetched
+him home, and left the doughnuts and things on the ground.  Petted
+him, of course, like she does with every creature.  In two days she
+had him so stuck after her that she--well, YOU know how he follows
+her everywhere, and sets on her shoulder often when she rides her
+breakneck rampages--all of which is the girl-twin to the front, you
+see--and he does what he pleases, and is up to all kinds of
+devilment, and is a perfect nuisance in the kitchen.  Well, they
+all stand it, but they wouldn't if it was another person's bird."
+
+Here she began to chuckle comfortably, and presently she said:
+
+"Well, you know, she's a nuisance herself, Miss Cathy is, she IS so
+busy, and into everything, like that bird.  It's all just as
+innocent, you know, and she don't mean any harm, and is so good and
+dear; and it ain't her fault, it's her nature; her interest is
+always a-working and always red-hot, and she can't keep quiet.
+Well, yesterday it was 'Please, Miss Cathy, don't do that'; and,
+'Please, Miss Cathy, let that alone'; and, 'Please, Miss Cathy,
+don't make so much noise'; and so on and so on, till I reckon I had
+found fault fourteen times in fifteen minutes; then she looked up
+at me with her big brown eyes that can plead so, and said in that
+odd little foreign way that goes to your heart,
+
+"'Please, mammy, make me a compliment."
+
+"And of course you did it, you old fool?"
+
+"Marse Tom, I just grabbed her up to my breast and says, 'Oh, you
+po' dear little motherless thing, you ain't got a fault in the
+world, and you can do anything you want to, and tear the house
+down, and yo' old black mammy won't say a word!'"
+
+"Why, of course, of course--_I_ knew you'd spoil the child."
+
+She brushed away her tears, and said with dignity:
+
+"Spoil the child? spoil THAT child, Marse Tom?  There can't ANYBODY
+spoil her.  She's the king bee of this post, and everybody pets her
+and is her slave, and yet, as you know, your own self, she ain't
+the least little bit spoiled."  Then she eased her mind with this
+retort:  "Marse Tom, she makes you do anything she wants to, and
+you can't deny it; so if she could be spoilt, she'd been spoilt
+long ago, because you are the very WORST!  Look at that pile of
+cats in your chair, and you sitting on a candle-box, just as
+patient; it's because they're her cats."
+
+If Dorcas were a soldier, I could punish her for such large
+frankness as that.  I changed the subject, and made her resume her
+illustrations.  She had scored against me fairly, and I wasn't
+going to cheapen her victory by disputing it.  She proceeded to
+offer this incident in evidence on her twin theory:
+
+"Two weeks ago when she got her finger mashed open, she turned
+pretty pale with the pain, but she never said a word.  I took her
+in my lap, and the surgeon sponged off the blood and took a needle
+and thread and began to sew it up; it had to have a lot of
+stitches, and each one made her scrunch a little, but she never let
+go a sound.  At last the surgeon was so full of admiration that he
+said, 'Well, you ARE a brave little thing!' and she said, just as
+ca'm and simple as if she was talking about the weather, 'There
+isn't anybody braver but the Cid!'  You see? it was the boy-twin
+that the surgeon was a-dealing with.
+
+"Who is the Cid?"
+
+"I don't know, sir--at least only what she says.  She's always
+talking about him, and says he was the bravest hero Spain ever had,
+or any other country.  They have it up and down, the children do,
+she standing up for the Cid, and they working George Washington for
+all he is worth."
+
+"Do they quarrel?"
+
+"No; it's only disputing, and bragging, the way children do.  They
+want her to be an American, but she can't be anything but a
+Spaniard, she says.  You see, her mother was always longing for
+home, po' thing! and thinking about it, and so the child is just as
+much a Spaniard as if she'd always lived there.  She thinks she
+remembers how Spain looked, but I reckon she don't, because she was
+only a baby when they moved to France.  She is very proud to be a
+Spaniard."
+
+Does that please you, Mercedes?  Very well, be content; your niece
+is loyal to her allegiance:  her mother laid deep the foundations
+of her love for Spain, and she will go back to you as good a
+Spaniard as you are yourself.  She has made me promise to take her
+to you for a long visit when the War Office retires me.
+
+I attend to her studies myself; has she told you that?  Yes, I am
+her school-master, and she makes pretty good progress, I think,
+everything considered.  Everything considered--being translated--
+means holidays.  But the fact is, she was not born for study, and
+it comes hard.  Hard for me, too; it hurts me like a physical pain
+to see that free spirit of the air and the sunshine laboring and
+grieving over a book; and sometimes when I find her gazing far away
+towards the plain and the blue mountains with the longing in her
+eyes, I have to throw open the prison doors; I can't help it.  A
+quaint little scholar she is, and makes plenty of blunders.  Once I
+put the question:
+
+"What does the Czar govern?"
+
+She rested her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand and took
+that problem under deep consideration.  Presently she looked up and
+answered, with a rising inflection implying a shade of uncertainty,
+
+"The dative case?"
+
+Here are a couple of her expositions which were delivered with
+tranquil confidence:
+
+"CHAPLAIN, diminutive of chap.  LASS is masculine, LASSIE is
+feminine."
+
+She is not a genius, you see, but just a normal child; they all
+make mistakes of that sort.  There is a glad light in her eye which
+is pretty to see when she finds herself able to answer a question
+promptly and accurately, without any hesitation; as, for instance,
+this morning:
+
+"Cathy dear, what is a cube?"
+
+"Why, a native of Cuba."
+
+She still drops a foreign word into her talk now and then, and
+there is still a subtle foreign flavor or fragrance about even her
+exactest English--and long may this abide! for it has for me a
+charm that is very pleasant.  Sometimes her English is daintily
+prim and bookish and captivating.  She has a child's sweet tooth,
+but for her health's sake I try to keep its inspirations under
+cheek.  She is obedient--as is proper for a titled and recognized
+military personage, which she is--but the chain presses sometimes.
+For instance, we were out for a walk, and passed by some bushes
+that were freighted with wild goose-berries.  Her face brightened
+and she put her hands together and delivered herself of this
+speech, most feelingly:
+
+"Oh, if I was permitted a vice it would be the gourmandise!"
+
+Could I resist that?  No.  I gave her a gooseberry.
+
+You ask about her languages.  They take care of themselves; they
+will not get rusty here; our regiments are not made up of natives
+alone--far from it.  And she is picking up Indian tongues
+diligently.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--SOLDIER BOY AND THE MEXICAN PLUG
+
+
+
+"When did you come?"
+
+"Arrived at sundown."
+
+"Where from?"
+
+"Salt Lake."
+
+"Are you in the service?"
+
+"No.  Trade."
+
+"Pirate trade, I reckon."
+
+"What do you know about it?"
+
+"I saw you when you came.  I recognized your master.  He is a bad
+sort.  Trap-robber, horse-thief, squaw-man, renegado--Hank Butters-
+-I know him very well.  Stole you, didn't he?"
+
+"Well, it amounted to that."
+
+"I thought so.  Where is his pard?"
+
+"He stopped at White Cloud's camp."
+
+"He is another of the same stripe, is Blake Haskins."  (Aside.)
+They are laying for Buffalo Bill again, I guess.  (Aloud.)  "What
+is your name?"
+
+"Which one?"
+
+"Have you got more than one?"
+
+"I get a new one every time I'm stolen.  I used to have an honest
+name, but that was early; I've forgotten it.  Since then I've had
+thirteen aliases."
+
+"Aliases?  What is alias?"
+
+"A false name."
+
+"Alias.  It's a fine large word, and is in my line; it has quite a
+learned and cerebrospinal incandescent sound.  Are you educated?"
+
+"Well, no, I can't claim it.  I can take down bars, I can
+distinguish oats from shoe-pegs, I can blaspheme a saddle-boil with
+the college-bred, and I know a few other things--not many; I have
+had no chance, I have always had to work; besides, I am of low
+birth and no family.  You speak my dialect like a native, but you
+are not a Mexican Plug, you are a gentleman, I can see that; and
+educated, of course."
+
+"Yes, I am of old family, and not illiterate.  I am a fossil."
+
+"A which?"
+
+"Fossil.  The first horses were fossils.  They date back two
+million years."
+
+"Gr-eat sand and sage-brush! do you mean it?"
+
+"Yes, it is true.  The bones of my ancestors are held in reverence
+and worship, even by men.  They do not leave them exposed to the
+weather when they find them, but carry them three thousand miles
+and enshrine them in their temples of learning, and worship them."
+
+"It is wonderful!  I knew you must be a person of distinction, by
+your fine presence and courtly address, and by the fact that you
+are not subjected to the indignity of hobbles, like myself and the
+rest.  Would you tell me your name?"
+
+"You have probably heard of it--Soldier Boy."
+
+"What!--the renowned, the illustrious?"
+
+"Even so."
+
+"It takes my breath!  Little did I dream that ever I should stand
+face to face with the possessor of that great name.  Buffalo Bill's
+horse!  Known from the Canadian border to the deserts of Arizona,
+and from the eastern marches of the Great Plains to the foot-hills
+of the Sierra!  Truly this is a memorable day.  You still serve the
+celebrated Chief of Scouts?"
+
+"I am still his property, but he has lent me, for a time, to the
+most noble, the most gracious, the most excellent, her Excellency
+Catherine, Corporal-General Seventh Cavalry and Flag-Lieutenant
+Ninth Dragoons, U.S.A.,--on whom be peace!"
+
+"Amen.  Did you say HER Excellency?"
+
+"The same.  A Spanish lady, sweet blossom of a ducal house.  And
+truly a wonder; knowing everything, capable of everything; speaking
+all the languages, master of all sciences, a mind without horizons,
+a heart of gold, the glory of her race!  On whom be peace!"
+
+"Amen.  It is marvellous!"
+
+"Verily.  I knew many things, she has taught me others.  I am
+educated.  I will tell you about her."
+
+"I listen--I am enchanted."
+
+"I will tell a plain tale, calmly, without excitement, without
+eloquence.  When she had been here four or five weeks she was
+already erudite in military things, and they made her an officer--a
+double officer.  She rode the drill every day, like any soldier;
+and she could take the bugle and direct the evolutions herself.
+Then, on a day, there was a grand race, for prizes--none to enter
+but the children.  Seventeen children entered, and she was the
+youngest.  Three girls, fourteen boys--good riders all.  It was a
+steeplechase, with four hurdles, all pretty high.  The first prize
+was a most cunning half-grown silver bugle, and mighty pretty, with
+red silk cord and tassels.  Buffalo Bill was very anxious; for he
+had taught her to ride, and he did most dearly want her to win that
+race, for the glory of it.  So he wanted her to ride me, but she
+wouldn't; and she reproached him, and said it was unfair and
+unright, and taking advantage; for what horse in this post or any
+other could stand a chance against me? and she was very severe with
+him, and said, 'You ought to be ashamed--you are proposing to me
+conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.'  So he just tossed
+her up in the air about thirty feet and caught her as she came
+down, and said he was ashamed; and put up his handkerchief and
+pretended to cry, which nearly broke her heart, and she petted him,
+and begged him to forgive her, and said she would do anything in
+the world he could ask but that; but he said he ought to go hang
+himself, and he MUST, if he could get a rope; it was nothing but
+right he should, for he never, never could forgive himself; and
+then SHE began to cry, and they both sobbed, the way you could hear
+him a mile, and she clinging around his neck and pleading, till at
+last he was comforted a little, and gave his solemn promise he
+wouldn't hang himself till after the race; and wouldn't do it at
+all if she won it, which made her happy, and she said she would win
+it or die in the saddle; so then everything was pleasant again and
+both of them content.  He can't help playing jokes on her, he is so
+fond of her and she is so innocent and unsuspecting; and when she
+finds it out she cuffs him and is in a fury, but presently forgives
+him because it's him; and maybe the very next day she's caught with
+another joke; you see she can't learn any better, because she
+hasn't any deceit in her, and that kind aren't ever expecting it in
+another person.
+
+"It was a grand race.  The whole post was there, and there was such
+another whooping and shouting when the seventeen kids came flying
+down the turf and sailing over the hurdles--oh, beautiful to see!
+Half-way down, it was kind of neck and neck, and anybody's race and
+nobody's.  Then, what should happen but a cow steps out and puts
+her head down to munch grass, with her broadside to the battalion,
+and they a-coming like the wind; they split apart to flank her, but
+SHE?--why, she drove the spurs home and soared over that cow like a
+bird! and on she went, and cleared the last hurdle solitary and
+alone, the army letting loose the grand yell, and she skipped from
+the horse the same as if he had been standing still, and made her
+bow, and everybody crowded around to congratulate, and they gave
+her the bugle, and she put it to her lips and blew 'boots and
+saddles' to see how it would go, and BB was as proud as you can't
+think!  And he said, 'Take Soldier Boy, and don't pass him back
+till I ask for him!' and I can tell you he wouldn't have said that
+to any other person on this planet.  That was two months and more
+ago, and nobody has been on my back since but the Corporal-General
+Seventh Cavalry and Flag-Lieutenant of the Ninth Dragoons, U.S.A.,-
+-on whom be peace!"
+
+"Amen.  I listen--tell me more."
+
+"She set to work and organized the Sixteen, and called it the First
+Battalion Rocky Mountain Rangers, U.S.A., and she wanted to be
+bugler, but they elected her Lieutenant-General and Bugler.  So she
+ranks her uncle the commandant, who is only a Brigadier.  And
+doesn't she train those little people!  Ask the Indians, ask the
+traders, ask the soldiers; they'll tell you.  She has been at it
+from the first day.  Every morning they go clattering down into the
+plain, and there she sits on my back with her bugle at her mouth
+and sounds the orders and puts them through the evolutions for an
+hour or more; and it is too beautiful for anything to see those
+ponies dissolve from one formation into another, and waltz about,
+and break, and scatter, and form again, always moving, always
+graceful, now trotting, now galloping, and so on, sometimes near
+by, sometimes in the distance, all just like a state ball, you
+know, and sometimes she can't hold herself any longer, but sounds
+the 'charge,' and turns me loose! and you can take my word for it,
+if the battalion hasn't too much of a start we catch up and go over
+the breastworks with the front line.
+
+"Yes, they are soldiers, those little people; and healthy, too, not
+ailing any more, the way they used to be sometimes.  It's because
+of her drill.  She's got a fort, now--Fort Fanny Marsh.  Major-
+General Tommy Drake planned it out, and the Seventh and Dragoons
+built it.  Tommy is the Colonel's son, and is fifteen and the
+oldest in the Battalion; Fanny Marsh is Brigadier-General, and is
+next oldest--over thirteen.  She is daughter of Captain Marsh,
+Company B, Seventh Cavalry.  Lieutenant-General Alison is the
+youngest by considerable; I think she is about nine and a half or
+three-quarters.  Her military rig, as Lieutenant-General, isn't for
+business, it's for dress parade, because the ladies made it.  They
+say they got it out of the Middle Ages--out of a book--and it is
+all red and blue and white silks and satins and velvets; tights,
+trunks, sword, doublet with slashed sleeves, short cape, cap with
+just one feather in it; I've heard them name these things; they got
+them out of the book; she's dressed like a page, of old times, they
+say.  It's the daintiest outfit that ever was--you will say so,
+when you see it.  She's lovely in it--oh, just a dream!  In some
+ways she is just her age, but in others she's as old as her uncle,
+I think.  She is very learned.  She teaches her uncle his book.  I
+have seen her sitting by with the book and reciting to him what is
+in it, so that he can learn to do it himself.
+
+"Every Saturday she hires little Injuns to garrison her fort; then
+she lays siege to it, and makes military approaches by make-believe
+trenches in make-believe night, and finally at make-believe dawn
+she draws her sword and sounds the assault and takes it by storm.
+It is for practice.  And she has invented a bugle-call all by
+herself, out of her own head, and it's a stirring one, and the
+prettiest in the service.  It's to call ME--it's never used for
+anything else.  She taught it to me, and told me what it says:  'IT
+IS I, SOLDIER--COME!' and when those thrilling notes come floating
+down the distance I hear them without fail, even if I am two miles
+away; and then--oh, then you should see my heels get down to
+business!
+
+"And she has taught me how to say good-morning and good-night to
+her, which is by lifting my right hoof for her to shake; and also
+how to say good-bye; I do that with my left foot--but only for
+practice, because there hasn't been any but make-believe good-
+byeing yet, and I hope there won't ever be.  It would make me cry
+if I ever had to put up my left foot in earnest.  She has taught me
+how to salute, and I can do it as well as a soldier.  I bow my head
+low, and lay my right hoof against my cheek.  She taught me that
+because I got into disgrace once, through ignorance.  I am
+privileged, because I am known to be honorable and trustworthy, and
+because I have a distinguished record in the service; so they don't
+hobble me nor tie me to stakes or shut me tight in stables, but let
+me wander around to suit myself.  Well, trooping the colors is a
+very solemn ceremony, and everybody must stand uncovered when the
+flag goes by, the commandant and all; and once I was there, and
+ignorantly walked across right in front of the band, which was an
+awful disgrace:  Ah, the Lieutenant-General was so ashamed, and so
+distressed that I should have done such a thing before all the
+world, that she couldn't keep the tears back; and then she taught
+me the salute, so that if I ever did any other unmilitary act
+through ignorance I could do my salute and she believed everybody
+would think it was apology enough and would not press the matter.
+It is very nice and distinguished; no other horse can do it; often
+the men salute me, and I return it.  I am privileged to be present
+when the Rocky Mountain Rangers troop the colors and I stand
+solemn, like the children, and I salute when the flag goes by.  Of
+course when she goes to her fort her sentries sing out 'Turn out
+the guard!' and then . . . do you catch that refreshing early-
+morning whiff from the mountain-pines and the wild flowers?  The
+night is far spent; we'll hear the bugles before long.  Dorcas, the
+black woman, is very good and nice; she takes care of the
+Lieutenant-General, and is Brigadier-General Alison's mother, which
+makes her mother-in-law to the Lieutenant-General.  That is what
+Shekels says.  At least it is what I think he says, though I never
+can understand him quite clearly. He--"
+
+"Who is Shekels?"
+
+"The Seventh Cavalry dog.  I mean, if he IS a dog.  His father was
+a coyote and his mother was a wild-cat.  It doesn't really make a
+dog out of him, does it?"
+
+"Not a real dog, I should think.  Only a kind of a general dog, at
+most, I reckon.  Though this is a matter of ichthyology, I suppose;
+and if it is, it is out of my depth, and so my opinion is not
+valuable, and I don't claim much consideration for it."
+
+"It isn't ichthyology; it is dogmatics, which is still more
+difficult and tangled up.  Dogmatics always are."
+
+"Dogmatics is quite beyond me, quite; so I am not competing.  But
+on general principles it is my opinion that a colt out of a coyote
+and a wild-cat is no square dog, but doubtful.  That is my hand,
+and I stand pat."
+
+"Well, it is as far as I can go myself, and be fair and
+conscientious.  I have always regarded him as a doubtful dog, and
+so has Potter.  Potter is the great Dane.  Potter says he is no
+dog, and not even poultry--though I do not go quite so far as that.
+
+"And I wouldn't, myself.  Poultry is one of those things which no
+person can get to the bottom of, there is so much of it and such
+variety.  It is just wings, and wings, and wings, till you are
+weary:  turkeys, and geese, and bats, and butterflies, and angels,
+and grasshoppers, and flying-fish, and--well, there is really no
+end to the tribe; it gives me the heaves just to think of it.  But
+this one hasn't any wings, has he?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, in my belief he is more likely to be dog than poultry.
+I have not heard of poultry that hadn't wings.  Wings is the SIGN
+of poultry; it is what you tell poultry by.  Look at the mosquito."
+
+"What do you reckon he is, then?  He must be something."
+
+"Why, he could be a reptile; anything that hasn't wings is a
+reptile."
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"Nobody told me, but I overheard it."
+
+"Where did you overhear it?"
+
+"Years ago.  I was with the Philadelphia Institute expedition in
+the Bad Lands under Professor Cope, hunting mastodon bones, and I
+overheard him say, his own self, that any plantigrade circumflex
+vertebrate bacterium that hadn't wings and was uncertain was a
+reptile.  Well, then, has this dog any wings?  No.  Is he a
+plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium?  Maybe so, maybe not;
+but without ever having seen him, and judging only by his illegal
+and spectacular parentage, I will bet the odds of a bale of hay to
+a bran mash that he looks it.  Finally, is he uncertain?  That is
+the point--is he uncertain?  I will leave it to you if you have
+ever heard of a more uncertainer dog than what this one is?"
+
+"No, I never have."
+
+"Well, then, he's a reptile.  That's settled."
+
+"Why, look here, whatsyourname"
+
+"Last alias, Mongrel."
+
+"A good one, too.  I was going to say, you are better educated than
+you have been pretending to be.  I like cultured society, and I
+shall cultivate your acquaintance.  Now as to Shekels, whenever you
+want to know about any private thing that is going on at this post
+or in White Cloud's camp or Thunder-Bird's, he can tell you; and if
+you make friends with him he'll be glad to, for he is a born
+gossip, and picks up all the tittle-tattle.  Being the whole
+Seventh Cavalry's reptile, he doesn't belong to anybody in
+particular, and hasn't any military duties; so he comes and goes as
+he pleases, and is popular with all the house cats and other
+authentic sources of private information.  He understands all the
+languages, and talks them all, too.  With an accent like gritting
+your teeth, it is true, and with a grammar that is no improvement
+on blasphemy--still, with practice you get at the meat of what he
+says, and it serves. . . Hark!  That's the reveille. . . .
+
+[THE REVEILLE]
+
+"Faint and far, but isn't it clear, isn't it sweet?  There's no
+music like the bugle to stir the blood, in the still solemnity of
+the morning twilight, with the dim plain stretching away to nothing
+and the spectral mountains slumbering against the sky.  You'll hear
+another note in a minute--faint and far and clear, like the other
+one, and sweeter still, you'll notice.  Wait . . . listen.  There
+it goes!  It says, 'IT IS I, SOLDIER--COME!' . . .
+
+[SOLDIER BOY'S BUGLE CALL]
+
+. . . Now then, watch me leave a blue streak behind!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS
+
+
+
+"Did you do as I told you?  Did you look up the Mexican Plug?"
+
+"Yes, I made his acquaintance before night and got his friendship."
+
+"I liked him.  Did you?"
+
+"Not at first.  He took me for a reptile, and it troubled me,
+because I didn't know whether it was a compliment or not.  I
+couldn't ask him, because it would look ignorant.  So I didn't say
+anything, and soon liked him very well indeed.  Was it a
+compliment, do you think?"
+
+"Yes, that is what it was.  They are very rare, the reptiles; very
+few left, now-a-days."
+
+"Is that so?  What is a reptile?"
+
+"It is a plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hasn't
+any wings and is uncertain."
+
+"Well, it--it sounds fine, it surely does."
+
+"And it IS fine.  You may be thankful you are one."
+
+"I am.  It seems wonderfully grand and elegant for a person that is
+so humble as I am; but I am thankful, I am indeed, and will try to
+live up to it.  It is hard to remember.  Will you say it again,
+please, and say it slow?"
+
+"Plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hasn't any wings
+and is uncertain."
+
+"It is beautiful, anybody must grant it; beautiful, and of a noble
+sound.  I hope it will not make me proud and stuck-up--I should not
+like to be that.  It is much more distinguished and honorable to be
+a reptile than a dog, don't you think, Soldier?"
+
+"Why, there's no comparison.  It is awfully aristocratic.  Often a
+duke is called a reptile; it is set down so, in history."
+
+"Isn't that grand!  Potter wouldn't ever associate with me, but I
+reckon he'll be glad to when he finds out what I am."
+
+"You can depend upon it."
+
+"I will thank Mongrel for this. He is a very good sort, for a
+Mexican Plug.  Don't you think he is?"
+
+"It is my opinion of him; and as for his birth, he cannot help
+that.  We cannot all be reptiles, we cannot all be fossils; we have
+to take what comes and be thankful it is no worse.  It is the true
+philosophy."
+
+"For those others?"
+
+"Stick to the subject, please.  Did it turn out that my suspicions
+were right?"
+
+"Yes, perfectly right.  Mongrel has heard them planning.  They are
+after BB's life, for running them out of Medicine Bow and taking
+their stolen horses away from them."
+
+"Well, they'll get him yet, for sure."
+
+"Not if he keeps a sharp look-out."
+
+"HE keep a sharp lookout!  He never does; he despises them, and all
+their kind.  His life is always being threatened, and so it has
+come to be monotonous."
+
+"Does he know they are here?"
+
+"Oh yes, he knows it.  He is always the earliest to know who comes
+and who goes.  But he cares nothing for them and their threats; he
+only laughs when people warn him.  They'll shoot him from behind a
+tree the first he knows.  Did Mongrel tell you their plans?"
+
+"Yes.  They have found out that he starts for Fort Clayton day
+after to-morrow, with one of his scouts; so they will leave to-
+morrow, letting on to go south, but they will fetch around north
+all in good time."
+
+"Shekels, I don't like the look of it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--THE SCOUT-START.  BB AND LIEUTENANT-GENERAL ALISON
+
+
+
+BB (saluting).  "Good! handsomely done!  The Seventh couldn't beat
+it!  You do certainly handle your Rangers like an expert, General.
+And where are you bound?"
+
+"Four miles on the trail to Fort Clayton."
+
+"Glad am I, dear!  What's the idea of it?"
+
+"Guard of honor for you and Thorndike."
+
+"Bless--your--HEART!  I'd rather have it from you than from the
+Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States, you
+incomparable little soldier!--and I don't need to take any oath to
+that, for you to believe it."
+
+"I THOUGHT you'd like it, BB."
+
+"LIKE it?  Well, I should say so!  Now then--all ready--sound the
+advance, and away we go!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS AGAIN
+
+
+
+"Well, this is the way it happened.  We did the escort duty; then
+we came back and struck for the plain and put the Rangers through a
+rousing drill--oh, for hours!  Then we sent them home under
+Brigadier-General Fanny Marsh; then the Lieutenant-General and I
+went off on a gallop over the plains for about three hours, and
+were lazying along home in the middle of the afternoon, when we met
+Jimmy Slade, the drummer-boy, and he saluted and asked the
+Lieutenant-General if she had heard the news, and she said no, and
+he said:
+
+"'Buffalo Bill has been ambushed and badly shot this side of
+Clayton, and Thorndike the scout, too; Bill couldn't travel, but
+Thorndike could, and he brought the news, and Sergeant Wilkes and
+six men of Company B are gone, two hours ago, hotfoot, to get Bill.
+And they say--'
+
+"'GO!' she shouts to me--and I went."
+
+"Fast?"
+
+"Don't ask foolish questions.  It was an awful pace.  For four
+hours nothing happened, and not a word said, except that now and
+then she said, 'Keep it up, Boy, keep it up, sweetheart; we'll save
+him!'  I kept it up.  Well, when the dark shut down, in the rugged
+hills, that poor little chap had been tearing around in the saddle
+all day, and I noticed by the slack knee-pressure that she was
+tired and tottery, and I got dreadfully afraid; but every time I
+tried to slow down and let her go to sleep, so I could stop, she
+hurried me up again; and so, sure enough, at last over she went!
+
+"Ah, that was a fix to be in I for she lay there and didn't stir,
+and what was I to do?  I couldn't leave her to fetch help, on
+account of the wolves.  There was nothing to do but stand by.  It
+was dreadful.  I was afraid she was killed, poor little thing!  But
+she wasn't.  She came to, by-and-by, and said, 'Kiss me, Soldier,'
+and those were blessed words.  I kissed her--often; I am used to
+that, and we like it.  But she didn't get up, and I was worried.
+She fondled my nose with her hand, and talked to me, and called me
+endearing names--which is her way--but she caressed with the same
+hand all the time.  The other arm was broken, you see, but I didn't
+know it, and she didn't mention it.  She didn't want to distress
+me, you know.
+
+"Soon the big gray wolves came, and hung around, and you could hear
+them snarl, and snap at each other, but you couldn't see anything
+of them except their eyes, which shone in the dark like sparks and
+stars.  The Lieutenant-General said, 'If I had the Rocky Mountain
+Rangers here, we would make those creatures climb a tree.'  Then
+she made believe that the Rangers were in hearing, and put up her
+bugle and blew the 'assembly'; and then, 'boots and saddles'; then
+the 'trot'; 'gallop'; 'charge!'  Then she blew the 'retreat,' and
+said, 'That's for you, you rebels; the Rangers don't ever retreat!'
+
+"The music frightened them away, but they were hungry, and kept
+coming back.  And of course they got bolder and bolder, which is
+their way.  It went on for an hour, then the tired child went to
+sleep, and it was pitiful to hear her moan and nestle, and I
+couldn't do anything for her.  All the time I was laying for the
+wolves.  They are in my line; I have had experience.  At last the
+boldest one ventured within my lines, and I landed him among his
+friends with some of his skull still on him, and they did the rest.
+In the next hour I got a couple more, and they went the way of the
+first one, down the throats of the detachment.  That satisfied the
+survivors, and they went away and left us in peace.
+
+"We hadn't any more adventures, though I kept awake all night and
+was ready.  From midnight on the child got very restless, and out
+of her head, and moaned, and said, 'Water, water--thirsty'; and now
+and then, 'Kiss me, Soldier'; and sometimes she was in her fort and
+giving orders to her garrison; and once she was in Spain, and
+thought her mother was with her.  People say a horse can't cry; but
+they don't know, because we cry inside.
+
+"It was an hour after sunup that I heard the boys coming, and
+recognized the hoof-beats of Pomp and Caesar and Jerry, old mates
+of mine; and a welcomer sound there couldn't ever be.
+
+Buffalo Bill was in a horse-litter, with his leg broken by a
+bullet, and Mongrel and Blake Haskins's horse were doing the work.
+Buffalo Bill and Thorndike had lolled both of those toughs.
+
+"When they got to us, and Buffalo Bill saw the child lying there so
+white, he said, 'My God!' and the sound of his voice brought her to
+herself, and she gave a little cry of pleasure and struggled to get
+up, but couldn't, and the soldiers gathered her up like the
+tenderest women, and their eyes were wet and they were not ashamed,
+when they saw her arm dangling; and so were Buffalo Bill's, and
+when they laid her in his arms he said, 'My darling, how does this
+come?' and she said, 'We came to save you, but I was tired, and
+couldn't keep awake, and fell off and hurt myself, and couldn't get
+on again.'  'You came to save me, you dear little rat?  It was too
+lovely of you!'  'Yes, and Soldier stood by me, which you know he
+would, and protected me from the wolves; and if he got a chance he
+kicked the life out of some of them--for you know he would, BB.'
+The sergeant said, 'He laid out three of them, sir, and here's the
+bones to show for it.'  'He's a grand horse,' said BB; 'he's the
+grandest horse that ever was! and has saved your life, Lieutenant-
+General Alison, and shall protect it the rest of his life--he's
+yours for a kiss!'  He got it, along with a passion of delight, and
+he said, 'You are feeling better now, little Spaniard--do you think
+you could blow the advance?'  She put up the bugle to do it, but he
+said wait a minute first.  Then he and the sergeant set her arm and
+put it in splints, she wincing but not whimpering; then we took up
+the march for home, and that's the end of the tale; and I'm her
+horse.  Isn't she a brick, Shekels?
+
+"Brick?  She's more than a brick, more than a thousand bricks--
+she's a reptile!"
+
+"It's a compliment out of your heart, Shekels.  God bless you for
+it!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--GENERAL ALISON AND DORCAS
+
+
+
+"Too much company for her, Marse Tom.  Betwixt you, and Shekels,
+the Colonel's wife, and the Cid--"
+
+"The Cid?  Oh, I remember--the raven."
+
+ "--and Mrs. Captain Marsh and Famine and Pestilence the baby
+COYOTES, and Sour-Mash and her pups, and Sardanapalus and her
+kittens--hang these names she gives the creatures, they warp my
+jaw--and Potter:  you--all sitting around in the house, and Soldier
+Boy at the window the entire time, it's a wonder to me she comes
+along as well as she does.  She--"
+
+"You want her all to yourself, you stingy old thing!"
+
+"Marse Tom, you know better.  It's too much company.  And then the
+idea of her receiving reports all the time from her officers, and
+acting upon them, and giving orders, the same as if she was well!
+It ain't good for her, and the surgeon don't like it, and tried to
+persuade her not to and couldn't; and when he ORDERED her, she was
+that outraged and indignant, and was very severe on him, and
+accused him of insubordination, and said it didn't become him to
+give orders to an officer of her rank.  Well, he saw he had excited
+her more and done more harm than all the rest put together, so he
+was vexed at himself and wished he had kept still.  Doctors DON'T
+know much, and that's a fact.  She's too much interested in things-
+-she ought to rest more.  She's all the time sending messages to
+BB, and to soldiers and Injuns and whatnot, and to the animals."
+
+"To the animals?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Who carries them?"
+
+"Sometimes Potter, but mostly it's Shekels."
+
+"Now come! who can find fault with such pretty make-believe as
+that?"
+
+"But it ain't make-believe, Marse Tom.  She does send them."
+
+"Yes, I don't doubt that part of it."
+
+"Do you doubt they get them, sir?"
+
+"Certainly.  Don't you?"
+
+"No, sir.  Animals talk to one another.  I know it perfectly well,
+Marse Tom, and I ain't saying it by guess."
+
+"What a curious superstition!"
+
+"It ain't a superstition, Marse Tom.  Look at that Shekels--look at
+him, NOW.  Is he listening, or ain't he?  NOW you see! he's turned
+his head away.  It's because he was caught--caught in the act.
+I'll ask you--could a Christian look any more ashamed than what he
+looks now?--LAY DOWN!  You see? he was going to sneak out.  Don't
+tell ME, Marse Tom!  If animals don't talk, I miss MY guess.  And
+Shekels is the worst.  He goes and tells the animals everything
+that happens in the officers' quarters; and if he's short of facts,
+he invents them.  He hasn't any more principle than a blue jay; and
+as for morals, he's empty.  Look at him now; look at him grovel.
+He knows what I am saying, and he knows it's the truth.  You see,
+yourself, that he can feel shame; it's the only virtue he's got.
+It's wonderful how they find out everything that's going on--the
+animals.  They--"
+
+"Do you really believe they do, Dorcas?"
+
+"I don't only just believe it, Marse Tom, I know it.  Day before
+yesterday they knew something was going to happen.  They were that
+excited, and whispering around together; why, anybody could see
+that they-- But my! I must get back to her, and I haven't got to my
+errand yet."
+
+"What is it, Dorcas?"
+
+"Well, it's two or three things.  One is, the doctor don't salute
+when he comes . . . Now, Marse Tom, it ain't anything to laugh at,
+and so--"
+
+"Well, then, forgive me; I didn't mean to laugh--I got caught
+unprepared."
+
+"You see, she don't want to hurt the doctor's feelings, so she
+don't say anything to him about it; but she is always polite,
+herself, and it hurts that kind for people to be rude to them."
+
+"I'll have that doctor hanged."
+
+"Marse Tom, she don't WANT him hanged.  She--"
+
+"Well, then, I'll have him boiled in oil."
+
+"But she don't WANT him boiled.  I--"
+
+"Oh, very well, very well, I only want to please her; I'll have him
+skinned."
+
+"Why, SHE don't want him skinned; it would break her heart.  Now--"
+
+"Woman, this is perfectly unreasonable.  What in the nation DOES
+she want?"
+
+"Marse Tom, if you would only be a little patient, and not fly off
+the handle at the least little thing.  Why, she only wants you to
+speak to him."
+
+"Speak to him!  Well, upon my word!  All this unseemly rage and row
+about such a--a-- Dorcas, I never saw you carry on like this
+before.  You have alarmed the sentry; he thinks I am being
+assassinated; he thinks there's a mutiny, a revolt, an
+insurrection; he--"
+
+"Marse Tom, you are just putting on; you know it perfectly well; I
+don't know what makes you act like that--but you always did, even
+when you was little, and you can't get over it, I reckon.  Are you
+over it now, Marse Tom?"
+
+"Oh, well, yes; but it would try anybody to be doing the best he
+could, offering every kindness he could think of, only to have it
+rejected with contumely and . . . Oh, well, let it go; it's no
+matter--I'll talk to the doctor.  Is that satisfactory, or are you
+going to break out again?"
+
+"Yes, sir, it is; and it's only right to talk to him, too, because
+it's just as she says; she's trying to keep up discipline in the
+Rangers, and this insubordination of his is a bad example for them-
+-now ain't it so, Marse Tom?"
+
+"Well, there IS reason in it, I can't deny it; so I will speak to
+him, though at bottom I think hanging would be more lasting.  What
+is the rest of your errand, Dorcas?"
+
+"Of course her room is Ranger headquarters now, Marse Tom, while
+she's sick.  Well, soldiers of the cavalry and the dragoons that
+are off duty come and get her sentries to let them relieve them and
+serve in their place.  It's only out of affection, sir, and because
+they know military honors please her, and please the children too,
+for her sake; and they don't bring their muskets; and so--"
+
+"I've noticed them there, but didn't twig the idea.  They are
+standing guard, are they?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and she is afraid you will reprove them and hurt their
+feelings, if you see them there; so she begs, if--if you don't mind
+coming in the back way--"
+
+"Bear me up, Dorcas; don't let me faint."
+
+"There--sit up and behave, Marse Tom.  You are not going to faint;
+you are only pretending--you used to act just so when you was
+little; it does seem a long time for you to get grown up."
+
+"Dorcas, the way the child is progressing, I shall be out of my job
+before long--she'll have the whole post in her hands.  I must make
+a stand, I must not go down without a struggle.  These
+encroachments. . . . Dorcas, what do you think she will think of
+next?"
+
+"Marse Tom, she don't mean any harm."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"Yes, Marse Tom."
+
+"You feel sure she has no ulterior designs?"
+
+"I don't know what that is, Marse Tom, but I know she hasn't."
+
+"Very well, then, for the present I am satisfied.  What else have
+you come about?"
+
+"I reckon I better tell you the whole thing first, Marse Tom, then
+tell you what she wants.  There's been an emeute, as she calls it.
+It was before she got back with BB.  The officer of the day
+reported it to her this morning.  It happened at her fort.  There
+was a fuss betwixt Major-General Tommy Drake and Lieutenant-Colonel
+Agnes Frisbie, and he snatched her doll away, which is made of
+white kid stuffed with sawdust, and tore every rag of its clothes
+off, right before them all, and is under arrest, and the charge is
+conduct un--"
+
+"Yes, I know--conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman--a
+plain case, too, it seems to me.  This is a serious matter.  Well,
+what is her pleasure?"
+
+"Well, Marse Tom, she has summoned a court-martial, but the doctor
+don't think she is well enough to preside over it, and she says
+there ain't anybody competent but her, because there's a major-
+general concerned; and so she--she--well, she says, would you
+preside over it for her? . . . Marse Tom, SIT up!  You ain't any
+more going to faint than Shekels is."
+
+"Look here, Dorcas, go along back, and be tactful.  Be persuasive;
+don't fret her; tell her it's all right, the matter is in my hands,
+but it isn't good form to hurry so grave a matter as this.  Explain
+to her that we have to go by precedents, and that I believe this
+one to be new.  In fact, you can say I know that nothing just like
+it has happened in our army, therefore I must be guided by European
+precedents, and must go cautiously and examine them carefully.
+Tell her not to be impatient, it will take me several days, but it
+will all come out right, and I will come over and report progress
+as I go along.  Do you get the idea, Dorcas?"
+
+"I don't know as I do, sir."
+
+"Well, it's this.  You see, it won't ever do for me, a brigadier in
+the regular army, to preside over that infant court-martial--there
+isn't any precedent for it, don't you see.  Very well.  I will go
+on examining authorities and reporting progress until she is well
+enough to get me out of this scrape by presiding herself.  Do you
+get it now?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, I get it, and it's good, I'll go and fix it with
+her.  LAY DOWN! and stay where you are."
+
+"Why, what harm is he doing?"
+
+"Oh, it ain't any harm, but it just vexes me to see him act so."
+
+"What was he doing?"
+
+"Can't you see, and him in such a sweat?  He was starting out to
+spread it all over the post.  NOW I reckon you won't deny, any
+more, that they go and tell everything they hear, now that you've
+seen it with yo' own eyes."
+
+"Well, I don't like to acknowledge it, Dorcas, but I don't see how
+I can consistently stick to my doubts in the face of such
+overwhelming proof as this dog is furnishing."
+
+"There, now, you've got in yo' right mind at last!  I wonder you
+can be so stubborn, Marse Tom.  But you always was, even when you
+was little.  I'm going now."
+
+"Look here; tell her that in view of the delay, it is my judgment
+that she ought to enlarge the accused on his parole."
+
+"Yes, sir, I'll tell her.  Marse Tom?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"She can't get to Soldier Boy, and he stands there all the time,
+down in the mouth and lonesome; and she says will you shake hands
+with him and comfort him?  Everybody does."
+
+"It's a curious kind of lonesomeness; but, all right, I will."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--SEVERAL MONTHS LATER.  ANTONIO AND THORNDIKE
+
+
+
+"Thorndike, isn't that Plug you're riding an assert of the scrap
+you and Buffalo Bill had with the late Blake Haskins and his pal a
+few months back?"
+
+"Yes, this is Mongrel--and not a half-bad horse, either."
+
+"I've noticed he keeps up his lick first-rate.  Say--isn't it a
+gaudy morning?"
+
+"Right you are!"
+
+"Thorndike, it's Andalusian! and when that's said, all's said."
+
+"Andalusian AND Oregonian, Antonio!  Put it that way, and you have
+my vote.  Being a native up there, I know.  You being Andalusian-
+born--"
+
+"Can speak with authority for that patch of paradise?  Well, I can.
+Like the Don! like Sancho!  This is the correct Andalusian dawn
+now--crisp, fresh, dewy, fragrant, pungent--"
+
+
+"'What though the spicy breezes
+Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle--'
+
+
+--GIT up, you old cow! stumbling like that when we've just been
+praising you! out on a scout and can't live up to the honor any
+better than that?  Antonio, how long have you been out here in the
+Plains and the Rockies?"
+
+"More than thirteen years."
+
+"It's a long time.  Don't you ever get homesick?"
+
+"Not till now."
+
+"Why NOW?--after such a long cure."
+
+"These preparations of the retiring commandant's have started it
+up."
+
+"Of course.  It's natural."
+
+"It keeps me thinking about Spain.  I know the region where the
+Seventh's child's aunt lives; I know all the lovely country for
+miles around; I'll bet I've seen her aunt's villa many a time; I'll
+bet I've been in it in those pleasant old times when I was a
+Spanish gentleman."
+
+"They say the child is wild to see Spain."
+
+"It's so; I know it from what I hear."
+
+"Haven't you talked with her about it?"
+
+"No.  I've avoided it.  I should soon be as wild as she is.  That
+would not be comfortable."
+
+"I wish I was going, Antonio.  There's two things I'd give a lot to
+see.  One's a railroad."
+
+"She'll see one when she strikes Missouri."
+
+"The other's a bull-fight."
+
+"I've seen lots of them; I wish I could see another."
+
+"I don't know anything about it, except in a mixed-up, foggy way,
+Antonio, but I know enough to know it's grand sport."
+
+"The grandest in the world!  There's no other sport that begins
+with it.  I'll tell you what I've seen, then you can judge.  It was
+my first, and it's as vivid to me now as it was when I saw it.  It
+was a Sunday afternoon, and beautiful weather, and my uncle, the
+priest, took me as a reward for being a good boy and because of my
+own accord and without anybody asking me I had bankrupted my
+savings-box and given the money to a mission that was civilizing
+the Chinese and sweetening their lives and softening their hearts
+with the gentle teachings of our religion, and I wish you could
+have seen what we saw that day, Thorndike.
+
+"The amphitheatre was packed, from the bull-ring to the highest
+row--twelve thousand people in one circling mass, one slanting,
+solid mass--royalties, nobles, clergy, ladies, gentlemen, state
+officials, generals, admirals, soldiers, sailors, lawyers, thieves,
+merchants, brokers, cooks, housemaids, scullery-maids, doubtful
+women, dudes, gamblers, beggars, loafers, tramps, American ladies,
+gentlemen, preachers, English ladies, gentlemen, preachers, German
+ditto, French ditto, and so on and so on, all the world
+represented:  Spaniards to admire and praise, foreigners to enjoy
+and go home and find fault--there they were, one solid, sloping,
+circling sweep of rippling and flashing color under the downpour of
+the summer sun--just a garden, a gaudy, gorgeous flower-garden!
+Children munching oranges, six thousand fans fluttering and
+glimmering, everybody happy, everybody chatting gayly with their
+intimates, lovely girl-faces smiling recognition and salutation to
+other lovely girl-faces, gray old ladies and gentlemen dealing in
+the like exchanges with each other--ah, such a picture of cheery
+contentment and glad anticipation! not a mean spirit, nor a sordid
+soul, nor a sad heart there--ah, Thorndike, I wish I could see it
+again.
+
+"Suddenly, the martial note of a bugle cleaves the hum and murmur--
+clear the ring!
+
+"They clear it.  The great gate is flung open, and the procession
+marches in, splendidly costumed and glittering:  the marshals of
+the day, then the picadores on horseback, then the matadores on
+foot, each surrounded by his quadrille of chulos.  They march to
+the box of the city fathers, and formally salute.  The key is
+thrown, the bull-gate is unlocked.  Another bugle blast--the gate
+flies open, the bull plunges in, furious, trembling, blinking in
+the blinding light, and stands there, a magnificent creature,
+centre of those multitudinous and admiring eyes, brave, ready for
+battle, his attitude a challenge.  He sees his enemy:  horsemen
+sitting motionless, with long spears in rest, upon blindfolded
+broken-down nags, lean and starved, fit only for sport and
+sacrifice, then the carrion-heap.
+
+"The bull makes a rush, with murder in his eye, but a picador meets
+him with a spear-thrust in the shoulder.  He flinches with the
+pain, and the picador skips out of danger.  A burst of applause for
+the picador, hisses for the bull.  Some shout 'Cow!' at the bull,
+and call him offensive names.  But he is not listening to them, he
+is there for business; he is not minding the cloak-bearers that
+come fluttering around to confuse him; he chases this way, he
+chases that way, and hither and yon, scattering the nimble
+banderillos in every direction like a spray, and receiving their
+maddening darts in his neck as they dodge and fly--oh, but it's a
+lively spectacle, and brings down the house!  Ah, you should hear
+the thundering roar that goes up when the game is at its wildest
+and brilliant things are done!
+
+"Oh, that first bull, that day, was great!  From the moment the
+spirit of war rose to flood-tide in him and he got down to his
+work, he began to do wonders.  He tore his way through his
+persecutors, flinging one of them clear over the parapet; he bowled
+a horse and his rider down, and plunged straight for the next, got
+home with his horns, wounding both horse and man; on again, here
+and there and this way and that; and one after another he tore the
+bowels out of two horses so that they gushed to the ground, and
+ripped a third one so badly that although they rushed him to cover
+and shoved his bowels back and stuffed the rents with tow and rode
+him against the bull again, he couldn't make the trip; he tried to
+gallop, under the spur, but soon reeled and tottered and fell, all
+in a heap.  For a while, that bull-ring was the most thrilling and
+glorious and inspiring sight that ever was seen.  The bull
+absolutely cleared it, and stood there alone! monarch of the place.
+The people went mad for pride in him, and joy and delight, and you
+couldn't hear yourself think, for the roar and boom and crash of
+applause."
+
+"Antonio, it carries me clear out of myself just to hear you tell
+it; it must have been perfectly splendid.  If I live, I'll see a
+bull-fight yet before I die.  Did they kill him?"
+
+"Oh yes; that is what the bull is for.  They tired him out, and got
+him at last.  He kept rushing the matador, who always slipped
+smartly and gracefully aside in time, waiting for a sure chance;
+and at last it came; the bull made a deadly plunge for him--was
+avoided neatly, and as he sped by, the long sword glided silently
+into him, between left shoulder and spine--in and in, to the hilt.
+He crumpled down, dying."
+
+"Ah, Antonio, it IS the noblest sport that ever was.  I would give
+a year of my life to see it.  Is the bull always killed?"
+
+"Yes.  Sometimes a bull is timid, finding himself in so strange a
+place, and he stands trembling, or tries to retreat.  Then
+everybody despises him for his cowardice and wants him punished and
+made ridiculous; so they hough him from behind, and it is the
+funniest thing in the world to see him hobbling around on his
+severed legs; the whole vast house goes into hurricanes of laughter
+over it; I have laughed till the tears ran down my cheeks to see
+it.  When he has furnished all the sport he can, he is not any
+longer useful, and is killed."
+
+"Well, it is perfectly grand, Antonio, perfectly beautiful.
+Burning a nigger don't begin."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--MONGREL AND THE OTHER HORSE
+
+
+
+"Sage-Brush, you have been listening?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Isn't it strange?"
+
+"Well, no, Mongrel, I don't know that it is."
+
+"Why don't you?"
+
+"I've seen a good many human beings in my time.  They are created
+as they are; they cannot help it.  They are only brutal because
+that is their make; brutes would be brutal if it was THEIR make."
+
+"To me, Sage-Brush, man is most strange and unaccountable.  Why
+should he treat dumb animals that way when they are not doing any
+harm?"
+
+"Man is not always like that, Mongrel; he is kind enough when he is
+not excited by religion."
+
+"Is the bull-fight a religious service?"
+
+"I think so.  I have heard so.  It is held on Sunday."
+
+(A reflective pause, lasting some moments.)  Then:
+
+"When we die, Sage-Brush, do we go to heaven and dwell with man?"
+
+"My father thought not.  He believed we do not have to go there
+unless we deserve it."
+
+
+
+
+PART II--IN SPAIN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--GENERAL ALISON TO HIS MOTHER
+
+
+
+It was a prodigious trip, but delightful, of course, through the
+Rockies and the Black Hills and the mighty sweep of the Great
+Plains to civilization and the Missouri border--where the
+railroading began and the delightfulness ended.  But no one is the
+worse for the journey; certainly not Cathy, nor Dorcas, nor Soldier
+Boy; and as for me, I am not complaining.
+
+Spain is all that Cathy had pictured it--and more, she says.  She
+is in a fury of delight, the maddest little animal that ever was,
+and all for joy.  She thinks she remembers Spain, but that is not
+very likely, I suppose.  The two--Mercedes and Cathy--devour each
+other.  It is a rapture of love, and beautiful to see.  It is
+Spanish; that describes it.  Will this be a short visit?
+
+No.  It will be permanent.  Cathy has elected to abide with Spain
+and her aunt.  Dorcas says she (Dorcas) foresaw that this would
+happen; and also says that she wanted it to happen, and says the
+child's own country is the right place for her, and that she ought
+not to have been sent to me, I ought to have gone to her.  I
+thought it insane to take Soldier Boy to Spain, but it was well
+that I yielded to Cathy's pleadings; if he had been left behind,
+half of her heart would have remained with him, and she would not
+have been contented.  As it is, everything has fallen out for the
+best, and we are all satisfied and comfortable.  It may be that
+Dorcas and I will see America again some day; but also it is a case
+of maybe not.
+
+We left the post in the early morning.  It was an affecting time.
+The women cried over Cathy, so did even those stern warriors, the
+Rocky Mountain Rangers; Shekels was there, and the Cid, and
+Sardanapalus, and Potter, and Mongrel, and Sour-Mash, Famine, and
+Pestilence, and Cathy kissed them all and wept; details of the
+several arms of the garrison were present to represent the rest,
+and say good-bye and God bless you for all the soldiery; and there
+was a special squad from the Seventh, with the oldest veteran at
+its head, to speed the Seventh's Child with grand honors and
+impressive ceremonies; and the veteran had a touching speech by
+heart, and put up his hand in salute and tried to say it, but his
+lips trembled and his voice broke, but Cathy bent down from the
+saddle and kissed him on the mouth and turned his defeat to
+victory, and a cheer went up.
+
+The next act closed the ceremonies, and was a moving surprise.  It
+may be that you have discovered, before this, that the rigors of
+military law and custom melt insensibly away and disappear when a
+soldier or a regiment or the garrison wants to do something that
+will please Cathy.  The bands conceived the idea of stirring her
+soldierly heart with a farewell which would remain in her memory
+always, beautiful and unfading, and bring back the past and its
+love for her whenever she should think of it; so they got their
+project placed before General Burnaby, my successor, who is Cathy's
+newest slave, and in spite of poverty of precedents they got his
+permission.  The bands knew the child's favorite military airs.  By
+this hint you know what is coming, but Cathy didn't.  She was asked
+to sound the "reveille," which she did.
+
+[REVEILLE]
+
+With the last note the bands burst out with a crash:  and woke the
+mountains with the "Star-Spangled Banner" in a way to make a body's
+heart swell and thump and his hair rise!  It was enough to break a
+person all up, to see Cathy's radiant face shining out through her
+gladness and tears.  By request she blew the "assembly," now. . . .
+
+[THE ASSEMBLY]
+
+. . . Then the bands thundered in, with "Rally round the flag,
+boys, rally once again!"  Next, she blew another call ("to the
+Standard") . . .
+
+[TO THE STANDARD]
+
+. . . and the bands responded with "When we were marching through
+Georgia."  Straightway she sounded "boots and saddles," that
+thrilling and most expediting call. . . .
+
+[BOOTS AND SADDLES]
+
+and the bands could hardly hold in for the final note; then they
+turned their whole strength loose on "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys
+are marching," and everybody's excitement rose to blood-heat.
+
+Now an impressive pause--then the bugle sang "TAPS"--translatable,
+this time, into "Good-bye, and God keep us all!" for taps is the
+soldier's nightly release from duty, and farewell:  plaintive,
+sweet, pathetic, for the morning is never sure, for him; always it
+is possible that he is hearing it for the last time. . . .
+
+[TAPS]
+
+. . . Then the bands turned their instruments towards Cathy and
+burst in with that rollicking frenzy of a tune, "Oh, we'll all get
+blind drunk when Johnny comes marching home--yes, we'll all get
+blind drunk when Johnny comes marching home!" and followed it
+instantly with "Dixie," that antidote for melancholy, merriest and
+gladdest of all military music on any side of the ocean--and that
+was the end.  And so--farewell!
+
+I wish you could have been there to see it all, hear it all, and
+feel it:  and get yourself blown away with the hurricane huzza that
+swept the place as a finish.
+
+When we rode away, our main body had already been on the road an
+hour or two--I speak of our camp equipage; but we didn't move off
+alone:  when Cathy blew the "advance" the Rangers cantered out in
+column of fours, and gave us escort, and were joined by White Cloud
+and Thunder-Bird in all their gaudy bravery, and by Buffalo Bill
+and four subordinate scouts.  Three miles away, in the Plains, the
+Lieutenant-General halted, sat her horse like a military statue,
+the bugle at her lips, and put the Rangers through the evolutions
+for half an hour; and finally, when she blew the "charge," she led
+it herself.  "Not for the last time," she said, and got a cheer,
+and we said good-bye all around, and faced eastward and rode away.
+
+Postscript.  A Day Later.  Soldier Boy was stolen last night.
+Cathy is almost beside herself, and we cannot comfort her.
+Mercedes and I are not much alarmed about the horse, although this
+part of Spain is in something of a turmoil, politically, at
+present, and there is a good deal of lawlessness.  In ordinary
+times the thief and the horse would soon be captured.  We shall
+have them before long, I think.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--SOLDIER BOY--TO HIMSELF
+
+
+
+It is five months.  Or is it six?  My troubles have clouded my
+memory.  I have been all over this land, from end to end, and now I
+am back again since day before yesterday, to that city which we
+passed through, that last day of our long journey, and which is
+near her country home.  I am a tottering ruin and my eyes are dim,
+but I recognized it.  If she could see me she would know me and
+sound my call.  I wish I could hear it once more; it would revive
+me, it would bring back her face and the mountains and the free
+life, and I would come--if I were dying I would come!  She would
+not know ME, looking as I do, but she would know me by my star.
+But she will never see me, for they do not let me out of this
+shabby stable--a foul and miserable place, with most two wrecks
+like myself for company.
+
+How many times have I changed hands?  I think it is twelve times--I
+cannot remember; and each time it was down a step lower, and each
+time I got a harder master.  They have been cruel, every one; they
+have worked me night and day in degraded employments, and beaten
+me; they have fed me ill, and some days not at all.  And so I am
+but bones, now, with a rough and frowsy skin humped and cornered
+upon my shrunken body--that skin which was once so glossy, that
+skin which she loved to stroke with her hand.  I was the pride of
+the mountains and the Great Plains; now I am a scarecrow and
+despised.  These piteous wrecks that are my comrades here say we
+have reached the bottom of the scale, the final humiliation; they
+say that when a horse is no longer worth the weeds and discarded
+rubbish they feed to him, they sell him to the bull-ring for a
+glass of brandy, to make sport for the people and perish for their
+pleasure.
+
+To die--that does not disturb me; we of the service never care for
+death.  But if I could see her once more! if I could hear her bugle
+sing again and say, "It is I, Soldier--come!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--GENERAL ALISON TO MRS. DRAKE, THE COLONEL'S WIFE
+
+
+
+To return, now, to where I was, and tell you the rest.  We shall
+never know how she came to be there; there is no way to account for
+it.  She was always watching for black and shiny and spirited
+horses--watching, hoping, despairing, hoping again; always giving
+chase and sounding her call, upon the meagrest chance of a
+response, and breaking her heart over the disappointment; always
+inquiring, always interested in sales-stables and horse
+accumulations in general.  How she got there must remain a mystery.
+
+At the point which I had reached in a preceding paragraph of this
+account, the situation was as follows:  two horses lay dying; the
+bull had scattered his persecutors for the moment, and stood
+raging, panting, pawing the dust in clouds over his back, when the
+man that had been wounded returned to the ring on a remount, a poor
+blindfolded wreck that yet had something ironically military about
+his bearing--and the next moment the bull had ripped him open and
+his bowls were dragging upon the ground:  and the bull was charging
+his swarm of pests again.  Then came pealing through the air a
+bugle-call that froze my blood--"IT IS I, SOLDIER--COME!"  I
+turned; Cathy was flying down through the massed people; she
+cleared the parapet at a bound, and sped towards that riderless
+horse, who staggered forward towards the remembered sound; but his
+strength failed, and he fell at her feet, she lavishing kisses upon
+him and sobbing, the house rising with one impulse, and white with
+horror!  Before help could reach her the bull was back again--
+
+She was never conscious again in life.  We bore her home, all
+mangled and drenched in blood, and knelt by her and listened to her
+broken and wandering words, and prayed for her passing spirit, and
+there was no comfort--nor ever will be, I think.  But she was
+happy, for she was far away under another sky, and comrading again
+with her Rangers, and her animal friends, and the soldiers.  Their
+names fell softly and caressingly from her lips, one by one, with
+pauses between.  She was not in pain, but lay with closed eyes,
+vacantly murmuring, as one who dreams.  Sometimes she smiled,
+saying nothing; sometimes she smiled when she uttered a name--such
+as Shekels, or BB, or Potter.  Sometimes she was at her fort,
+issuing commands; sometimes she was careering over the plain at the
+head of her men; sometimes she was training her horse; once she
+said, reprovingly, "You are giving me the wrong foot; give me the
+left--don't you know it is good-bye?"
+
+After this, she lay silent some time; the end was near.  By-and-by
+she murmured, "Tired . . . sleepy . . . take Cathy, mamma."  Then,
+"Kiss me, Soldier."  For a little time, she lay so still that we
+were doubtful if she breathed.  Then she put out her hand and began
+to feel gropingly about; then said, "I cannot find it; blow
+'taps.'"  It was the end.
+
+
+
+
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