1 files changed, 3835 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/10880.txt b/old/10880.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d704e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10880.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3835 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Teddy's Button, by Amy Le Feuvre
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Teddy's Button
+
+Author: Amy Le Feuvre
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10880]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEDDY'S BUTTON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joel Erickson, Michael Ciesielski, Mary Meehan and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TEDDY'S BUTTON
+
+                           By AMY LE FEUVRE
+
+            Author of 'Probable Sons,' 'Eric's Good News,' etc.
+
+                                 1896
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+An Antagonist
+
+
+He stood in the centre of a little crowd of village boys; his golden head
+was bare in the blazing sun, but the crop of curls seemed thick enough to
+protect him from its rays, and he was far too engrossed in his occupation
+to heed any discomfort from the heat.
+
+A slim delicate little lad, with a finely cut face, and blue eyes that by
+turns would sparkle with animation, and then settle into a dreamy
+wistfulness, with a deep far-away look in them. They were dancing and
+flashing with excitement now, and his whole frame was quivering with
+enthusiasm; with head thrown back, and tongue, hand, and foot all in
+motion, he seemed to have his audience completely spell-bound, and they
+listened with open eyes and mouths to his oration.
+
+With one hand he was fingering a large brass button, which figured
+conspicuously in the centre of his small waistcoat, and this button was
+the subject of his theme.
+
+'My father he rushed forward--"Come on, men; we'll save the old colours!"
+And they shouted "Hurrah!" as they made after him. There were guns going,
+and shells flying, and swords flashing and hacking away, and the enemy
+poured on with fiery red faces and gnashing teeth! My father drew his
+sword--and no one could stand against him, no one! He cut and he slashed,
+and heads and arms and legs rolled off as quick as lightning, one after
+the other. He got up to the colours, and with a shout he plunged his
+sword right through the enemy's body that had stolen them! The enemy fell
+stone dead. My father seized the colours and looked round. He was alone!
+The other soldiers had been beaten back. But was he in a funk? No; he
+gave a loud "Hurrah!" picked up his sword, and fought his way back, the
+enemy hard after him. It was a race for life, and he ran backwards the
+whole way; he wasn't going to turn his back to the enemy. He pressed on,
+shouting "Hurrah!" till he got to his own side again, and then he reached
+his colonel.
+
+'"Captain dead, sir I've got the colours!" He saluted as he said it, and
+then dropped dead himself at the colonel's feet, the blood gushing out
+of his heart, and over his clothes, and over this button!'
+
+The little orator paused as he sank his voice to a tragic whisper,
+then raising it again, he added triumphantly, 'And thirty bullets and
+six swords had gone through my father's body! That was something like
+a soldier!'
+
+'Oh, I say!' murmured a small sceptic from the crowd, 'it was twenty
+bullets last time; make it fifty, Teddy!'
+
+'And that's the story of my button,' pursued the boy, ignoring with scorn
+this last remark.
+
+'And did your father have only one button to his coat?'
+
+The voice was a strange one, and the boys turned round to meet the
+curious gaze of a sturdy little damsel, who had, unnoticed, joined the
+group. She was not dressed as an ordinary village child, but in a little
+rough serge sailor suit, with a large hat to match, set well back on a
+quantity of loose dark hair. A rosy-cheeked square-set little figure she
+was, and her brown eyes, fringed with long black lashes, looked straight
+at Teddy with something of defiance and scorn in their glance.
+
+Though at first a little taken aback, Teddy rose to the occasion.
+
+'One button!' he said with emphasis; 'the coat was sent to mother with
+only one button left on; and if you--' here he turned upon his questioner
+with a little fierceness--'if you had been through such a bloody battle,
+and killed so many men, you would have burst and lost _all_ your buttons,
+and not had one left, like father!'
+
+There was a round of applause at this, but the small maiden remained
+undaunted.
+
+'Is that a true story you told?' she demanded, with severity in her tone.
+
+'Of course it's true,' was the indignant shout of all.
+
+'Then I tell you, boy, I don't believe a word of it!' And with set
+determined lips she turned on her heel and walked away, having sown seeds
+of anger and resentment in more than one boyish breast.
+
+'Who is she?' asked Teddy as, tired and exhausted by his recital, he
+threw himself on the grass to rest. One of the bigger boys answered him.
+
+'I seed her come yesterday in a cab from the town to old Sol at the
+turnpike--she and her mother, I reckon. They had two carpet bags and a
+box and a poll parrot in a cage. I counted them myself, for I was havin'
+a ride behind, and the woman she called Sol "Father," so the little 'un
+must be his grandarter!'
+
+'P'raps they've come from 'Mericky,' suggested a small urchin,
+capering round on his hands and feet. 'Polls allays comes over the
+sea, you know.'
+
+[Illustration: TEDDY TELLS THE STORY OF HIS FATHER'S HEROIC DEATH.]
+
+'She didn't believe me,' murmured Teddy, chewing a wisp of grass
+meditatively.
+
+'Gals is no good, never! If she'd been a boy you would 'a fought her, but
+I shouldn't care for naught like her, Ted.'
+
+Teddy turned his face upwards to the speaker. 'No, I couldn't have fought
+her, Sam, if she'd been a boy. I've promised my mother I won't fight
+again till she gives me leave. You see, I fought four boys in one week
+last time, and she says she won't have it. I don't see if it is right for
+soldiers to fight, why it isn't right for boys!'
+
+'I don't think there's any fellers left for you to fight with, so you're
+pretty safe. Besides, it was only Tom Larken, who set them on to try and
+get your button from you, and he's gone off to another part of the
+country now.'
+
+'I think, p'raps,' went on Teddy slowly, as he turned over on his back
+and looked up at the clear blue sky above him, 'that I wasn't quite
+true about the bullets. I think it was six bullets and three sword
+cuts. I forget when I tell it how many it was; but she said she didn't
+believe a word!'
+
+Five o'clock struck by the old church clock close by. Teddy was upon
+his feet in an instant, and with a wild whoop and shout he was
+scudding across the green, his curls flying in the wind, and his
+little feet hardly seeming to touch the ground. There was none in
+the village so quick-footed as Teddy, and for daring feats and
+downright pluck he held the foremost place. Perhaps this accounted for
+his popularity, perhaps it was his marvellous aptitude for telling
+stories, many of them wild productions from his fertile brain, but
+certain it was that he was the pet and the darling of the village, and
+none as yet had resisted his sway.
+
+Over the green, up a shady lane, across two fields, and then, breathless
+and panting, Teddy paused before an old-fashioned farmhouse. He passed
+his hands lightly through his curls, pulled himself up with a jerk, and
+then quietly and sedately opened a latched door and entered the long
+low-roofed kitchen.
+
+There was something very restful in the scene. A square substantial table
+covered with a white cloth, in the centre a large bowl of roses and
+honeysuckle: home-made bread and golden butter, a glass dish of honey in
+its comb, a plate of fresh watercress, and a currant loaf completed the
+simple fare. Presiding at the tea-tray was a stern, forbidding-looking
+woman of sixty or more, opposite her was seated her son, the master of
+the farm, a heavy-faced, sleepy-looking man; and at his side, facing the
+door, sat Teddy's mother. A sweet gentle-faced young woman she was, with
+the same deep blue eyes as her little son; she bore no resemblance to
+the elder woman, and looked, as she indeed was, superior to her
+surroundings. Two years ago she had come with her child to make her home
+amongst her husband's people, and though at first her mother-in-law, Mrs.
+Platt, was inclined to look upon her contemptuously as a poor, delicate,
+useless creature, time proved to her that for steady, quiet work no one
+could eclipse her daughter-in-law. Young Mrs. John, as she was called,
+was now her right hand, and the dairy work of the farm was made over
+entirely to her.
+
+'Late again, you young scamp!' was the stern greeting of his grandmother,
+as Teddy appeared on the scene.
+
+The boy looked at her with a twinkle in his eye, put his little hand to
+his forehead, and gave her a military salute.
+
+'Sorry,' was all he said as he slipped into the chair that was
+waiting for him.
+
+'What have you been doing, sonny?' asked the young mother, whose eyes had
+brightened at the sight of him.
+
+'Telling father's story,' replied Teddy with alacrity.
+
+A shadow came over his mother's face, her lips took a distressed curve,
+but she said nothing, only occupied herself with attending to the child's
+wants. 'Your father was never late for his meals,' the grandmother put
+in with asperity.
+
+'Never, granny? Not when he was a boy? I shall be always in time when I'm
+a soldier.'
+
+'Better begin now, then; bad habits, like weeds, grow apace!'
+
+Teddy had no answer for this; his mouth was full of bread and butter, and
+he did not speak till the meal was over. Then, whilst tea was being taken
+away by the women, he turned to his uncle, who, pulling out a pipe from
+his pocket, sat down by the open door to smoke.
+
+'Uncle Jake!'
+
+A grunt was the only response; but that was sufficient. The two perfectly
+understood each other, and a minute after Teddy was perched on his knee.
+
+'I'm wondering if I can't get an enemy!' the boy proceeded, folding his
+small arms and looking up at his uncle steadily; 'all good people had
+enemies in the Bible, and I haven't one, I should like to have a good
+right down enemy!'
+
+'To fight?' asked his uncle.
+
+'To carry on with, you know; he would lay traps for me, and I would for
+him, like David and Saul; we should have a fine time of it. And then
+perhaps, if he did something dreadfully wrong, mother would give me leave
+to fight him, just once in a way. Don't you think that would be nice?'
+
+'Fightin' ain't the only grand thing in this world; peace is grander,'
+was the slow response to this appeal.
+
+'That's what mother says. She made me learn this morning--"Blessed are
+the peacemakers!" but you must have an enemy to make peace with, and I
+haven't got one.'
+
+There was silence; the uncle puffed away at his pipe; he was a good man,
+and had more brains than his appearance warranted, but Teddy's speeches
+were often a sore puzzle to him. The boy continued in a slow, thoughtful
+tone, 'I saw some one to-day that I feel might be an enemy, but she's a
+girl; men don't fight with women.'
+
+'I'd rather tackle a man than a woman any day. They be a powerful enemy
+sometimes, lad! And what have this young maid done to you?'
+
+'She said,'--and Teddy's eyes grew bright whilst the blood rushed into
+his cheeks--'she said she didn't believe a word of father's story--not a
+word of it! And she laughed, and walked away.'
+
+'That was coming it strong; and who is she, to talk so?'
+
+'She's a stranger; Sam said she's come to live with old Sol at the
+turnpike.'
+
+'That must be Grace's child,' said old Mrs. Platt, coming up and joining
+in the conversation. 'I heard she was coming to stay with her father this
+summer, and glad I am of it too--the old man is very lonely. I suppose
+her husband is at sea again.'
+
+'What is her husband?' inquired Teddy's mother, as with work in hand she
+came out and took a seat in the old-fashioned porch.
+
+'A sailor. Grace was always a roving nature herself. She never would
+settle down quiet and take a husband from these parts. She was maid to
+our squire's lady then, and went to foreign parts with her; but folks say
+she's steadied down now wonderful. They've been living at Portsmouth, she
+and her little girl.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+'When Greek Meets Greek
+ Then Comes The Tug
+ Of War!'
+
+
+Two little determined figures, with flushed, resolute faces, stood
+opposite one another on a narrow footbridge over a running stream.
+
+Neither could pass the other, but neither intended going back, and the
+sturdy maiden, in her sailor dress, with her small hands placed on her
+hips, appeared quite a match for Teddy, who, with his golden head well
+up, looked like a war-horse scenting the battle-field.
+
+It was thus they met again; both employing their Saturday afternoon in
+roaming along the edge of a stream, they had suddenly come face to face
+with one another.
+
+'You're to let me come over first,' she asserted very emphatically,
+'because I'm a girl.'
+
+[Illustration: 'YOU'RE TO LET ME COME OVER FIRST,' SHE ASSERTED.]
+
+'Boys never go back. A soldier's son never! I'm not going to turn my back
+before the enemy--I would disgrace my button if I did.'
+
+'That old button!' The tone was that of utmost scorn.
+
+Teddy's cheeks grew rosy red at once, but he said nothing.
+
+'I got to this bridge before you did,' she continued.
+
+'I began to cross it first. And _you_, who are you? No one knows anything
+about you. I have been crossing this bridge for _years_.'
+
+'More reason you shouldn't cross it now. My name is Nancy Wright, that's
+who I am.'
+
+A princess could not have revealed her name more royally. She added,
+after a pause, 'And I mean to come over first, so go back.'
+
+'Never! I never go back!'
+
+'Then I shall push you over in the water.'
+
+'Come on and try, then!'
+
+Then there was silence; both the little people eyed each other defiantly,
+yet a little doubtfully, as if measuring one another's strength, and
+their faces grew eager at the coming contest.
+
+'Boys always ought to give way to girls, always,' Nancy said, using her
+strongest plea; 'you're not a proper boy at all.'
+
+'You're not a proper girl. You're wearing a boy's hat and a boy's
+jacket.'
+
+'I'm a sailor's daughter, and everybody can see I am. You say you're a
+soldier's son, why don't you dress like one?'
+
+Teddy felt he was getting the worst of it. He fingered his button
+proudly.
+
+'I'm wearing something that has been in the thick of a bloody battle;
+that's more than you can do. Sailors don't know much of fighting.'
+
+'They know just as much as soldiers, and as to your old button, I b'lieve
+you just picked up the old brass thing from the gutter!'
+
+'If you weren't a girl, I'd fight you!' sputtered Teddy now, with
+rising wrath.
+
+'Pooh! I expect I could lick you; I don't b'lieve you have half as big a
+muscle as I have on my arm.'
+
+'A girl have muscle! It's just a bit of fat!'
+
+The tone of scorn proved too much for Nancy's self-control; with a
+passionate exclamation she made a quick rush across the plank, there was
+a struggle, and the result was what might have been expected--a great
+splash, a scream from Nancy, and both little figures were immersed in the
+stream. Happily the water was not very deep, and after a few minutes'
+scrambling they were on dry ground, considerably sobered by their
+immersion. Teddy began to laugh a little shamefacedly, but Nancy was very
+near tears.
+
+'I'll tell my mother you nearly drowned me dead.'
+
+'If you're a sailor's daughter, you oughtn't to be afraid of the water;
+sailors and fish are always in the sea.'
+
+'They're never in it; never!'
+
+'Well, they're on it, as close as they can be to it. Why, you're nearly
+crying! But you're only a girl, and a sailor's girl can't be very
+brave--not like a soldier's girl would be.'
+
+'Sailors are much braver than soldiers,' said Nancy, quickly swallowing
+down her tears; 'and when they do fight they're in much more danger than
+the soldiers. Father said, how would soldiers like the earth to swallow
+them up just when they've been fighting hard and got the victory? That's
+what the sea does to the poor sailors. Their ship begins to sink, and
+they send up three cheers for queen and country, and then stand on deck
+with folded arms, and go down, down, down to the bottom of the sea, and
+never make a cry!'
+
+Nancy forgot her wet clothes in her eloquence, and Teddy stared
+wonderingly at her.
+
+'Well,' he said, as if considering the matter, 'they may be sometimes
+brave, but they don't fight like the soldiers, and they have no banners,
+and red coats, and band; and they don't know how to march. A sailor walks
+anyhow. I saw one once, and I thought he was tipsy, but he wasn't. A
+sailor walks like a goose--he waddles!'
+
+'You're the horridest, rudest boy I've ever seen!'
+
+And with the utmost dignity Nancy walked away, Teddy calling after her,
+'You made a pretty good charge for a girl, but you couldn't get past
+me!' And then with one of his loud whoops he raced home, and hardly drew
+a breath till he reached the farmhouse door. His grandmother confronted
+him at once.
+
+'You young rascal, what have you been doing? You're never a day out of
+mischief. If I was your mother I'd give you a good whipping; but she
+spoils you.'
+
+'And you do, too, granny!'
+
+Teddy's laughing blue eyes, as he raised them to the grim face before
+him, conquered, as they generally did.
+
+'There, go to your mother, she's in the dairy; I wash my hands of you.'
+
+But Teddy crept up to his little room to change his wet clothes before he
+met his mother, and then was very silent about his adventure, merely
+saying, by way of explanation, that he had fallen into the brook; but at
+tea, a short time after, he suddenly said,--
+
+'If you put a sailor and a soldier together, which would you choose,
+Uncle Jake?'
+
+'Eh, my laddie? Well, they're both good in their way. I couldn't say,
+I'm sure.'
+
+'Mother, wouldn't you say the soldier was the bravest?'
+
+'Perhaps I might, sonny; but a sailor can be quite as brave.'
+
+Teddy's face fell. 'I never thought a sailor could fight at all,' he
+said, in a disappointed tone; 'I thought they just took care of our
+ships, and now and then fired a big gun off.'
+
+'Who's been bringing up the sailors to you?' asked his grandmother.
+
+'That little girl I told you of--Nancy her name is.'
+
+'Where have you seen her?'
+
+'Down by the brook; we fell into the water together, because we both
+wanted to cross at once.'
+
+'But, my boy, that was naughty for you not to give place to her,' and
+Mrs. John spoke reprovingly.
+
+'I know it was, mother, but I wasn't going to turn back. That would be
+running away from the enemy. You see, we met in the middle, and she's not
+at all a nice girl, and she's so proud and stuck up about the sailors!'
+
+'As proud as you are of the redcoats, I guess!' old Mrs. Platt said.
+
+'Do sailors and soldiers like each other?' questioned Teddy, ignoring
+the thrust.
+
+'I am sure I don't know,' his mother answered, smiling. 'I have never
+seen them together that I remember, but I should think they did. They
+both fight for their queen and country.'
+
+'Well, I'm a soldier's son, and I don't like a sailor's daughter, I know
+that! I think she is a kind of enemy.'
+
+'Oh, hush! sonny. You must have no enemies. It is wrong to talk so.'
+
+'That's what he was a-sayin' to me t'other day,' put in his uncle slowly;
+'he says he wants one.'
+
+'Yes, I do,' and Teddy gave a fervent nod as he spoke; 'and, mother, I
+believe most good people have enemies, so it must be right to have one.'
+
+'They never make one, as you're trying to do.'
+
+Teddy looked puzzled.
+
+'Well,' he said presently, 'I expect it's because she's a stranger. She
+doesn't belong to our village. I don't like strangers.'
+
+'She's no more a stranger than you were when you first came here,' his
+mother said; 'and the fact of her being a stranger ought to make you
+kind to her.'
+
+'I'm thinking of calling on her mother,' old Mrs. Platt said, looking at
+her little grandson with her keen grey eyes; 'shall I take you with me to
+see the little girl?'
+
+'I've seen her enough, granny. Please, I think I'd rather not.'
+
+The subject was dropped, but Teddy's thoughts were busy. He ran down to
+the village green after tea, and there met one or two of his special
+chums, to whom he confided the events of the afternoon. They highly
+applauded the scene at the bridge, but Teddy shook his curly head a
+little doubtfully.
+
+'Men ought always to give way to women, I've heard mother say; but I
+couldn't turn back, you see--it would have disgraced my button.'
+
+'Tell you what,' cried Harry Brown, commonly known as 'Carrots' from his
+fiery hair, 'you could 'a done what the goats did in the primer at
+school--you ought ter have laid flat down and let her walk across you.'
+
+'She would have hurt dreadful,' Teddy observed thoughtfully. 'Besides,
+she's so proud, I don't think I would have liked to do that.'
+
+'No,' put in Sam Waters; 'you did fine. I say, let's come up to the
+turnpike and see if she's about there. I'll give her a word, if she
+begins to sauce me.'
+
+Teddy agreed to this, and the trio trotted off along a flat, dusty road,
+Teddy beguiling the way by some of his wonderful stories till they came
+in sight of the low thatched cottage, covered with roses, that guarded
+the turnpike.
+
+They soon saw the young damsel, for she was swinging on the gate, her
+dark hair flying in the wind, and her eyes and cheeks bright with the
+exercise. She looked at the boys, then laughed.
+
+'Poor little button-boy!' she said; 'you have to be taken care of by two
+bigger ones.'
+
+'We've come to see you,' said Sam valiantly, 'because we ain't going to
+stand any cheek from you; so you had better look out.'
+
+Nancy stopped swinging, and resting her fat little elbows on the topmost
+bar, asked saucily, 'Did the button-boy tell you to come and help him
+fight me? Are you all three going to try?'
+
+'We don't fight girls,' said Teddy.
+
+'You push them into the water.'
+
+'I didn't.'
+
+'I told mother about it. She thought you was a very rude boy not to wait
+till I crossed over.'
+
+There was silence, then Carrots started forward.
+
+'Look here, you'll have to learn your manners, and we won't have a
+strange girl like you stick yourself up so. We've come to tell you to
+look out for yourself if you don't stop it.'
+
+Nancy laughed again, and swung herself violently backwards and forwards.
+'Yo ho! my lads, yo ho!' she sang. 'I'm on my ship, and I don't care for
+boys a bit; they're all as stupid as they can be. Yo ho! We go! Yo ho,
+lads, heave ho!'
+
+Her elevated position certainly seemed to give her an advantage.
+
+'We'll soon shake you off there!' shouted Sam, his wrath rising at her
+calm indifference to the lords of creation.
+
+'Come on, and try. I'm up the rigging, and a storm is beginning.
+Hurray--come on!'
+
+Sam and Carrots made a furious onslaught, and the gate was roughly
+handled, but the more it shook and swung, the more derisive was Nancy's
+laughter, as she clutched a firm hold with her small hands, and swayed to
+and fro, calling out excitedly, 'Furl the main-sail! Stand by,
+lads--steady--starboard hard! Port your helm! Rocks to leeward! Reef the
+top-sail! Breakers ahead! Yo ho!'
+
+Teddy looked on, awed by these nautical terms, which seemed to slip so
+easily from her lips. To him they seemed wonderfully clever, but he was
+not one to stand aside long in a scene of excitement, and with one of his
+wild war whoops he rushed forward.
+
+'On, boys! Charge! Hurrah!'
+
+The gate rocked violently, and Nancy began to feel her position was a
+perilous one. All the little people were screaming at the top of their
+voices, when suddenly, in the midst of the din, appeared old Sol.
+
+'What now! Who are these trying to break one of Her Majesty's gates down?
+Be off, you young ruffians! Teddy Platt, you're at the bottom of all the
+mischief brewing in the parish. I'll get my big stick out and give you a
+thrashing before I've done with you.'
+
+Old Sol's words were fierce, but the boys knew he had the softest heart
+in the village, and they stood their ground. 'It's all the button-boy,'
+said Nancy eagerly, as she descended from her perch, and laid her little
+hand confidingly on the old man's arm. 'He brought these boys up to fight
+me, but I was up the mast, and they couldn't shake me off!'
+
+'We told you we wouldn't fight a girl,' protested Teddy indignantly; 'you
+don't speak the truth.'
+
+'Well, what did you bring the boys for?' demanded the small maiden
+severely.
+
+'We came,' put in Sam boldly, 'to tell you that if you were so cheeky you
+would soon get into trouble. We ain't going to stand sauce from you.'
+
+'What has the little lass been doing, you young scoundrels?'
+
+'They're only boys, grandfather; let us come in to mother, and leave
+them. They're the rudest boys I've ever seen, and the button-boy is the
+worst, and his button isn't worth a farthing!'
+
+There was a yell from all three boys at this.
+
+'That's it!' cried Carrots excitedly. 'It's the button she's so cheeky
+about. We ain't going to have Teddy's button laughed at. We won't stand
+it, Sol--we won't!'
+
+'It shows she don't know nothing, or she wouldn't talk so. She's just a
+baby, that's what she is.'
+
+'Why, she doesn't believe father's story is true, Sol! You know it is,
+don't you?'
+
+'She isn't as old as the button itself.'
+
+'Ha! ha! she wasn't born when it was in battle. Much she knows about it!'
+
+Sol had difficulty in quieting the indignant voices.
+
+'Lookee here, you boys, go home and leave my little lass to me; she knows
+nothing about the button. I'll tell her the story, and then she won't
+laugh at it any more. Ay, I remember seeing your father, youngster. He
+was a brave man, he was, but he would never have made war against little
+maids like this. Shame on you; get you home! Get you gone, I say, or I'll
+bring my stick out.'
+
+'She's been told the story. She listened, and she laughed. She ought to
+say she's sorry.'
+
+Teddy stood with his legs wide apart, and his hands in his pockets. His
+tone was severe.
+
+'I'll never, never, never say I'm sorry. I'm glad of what I said. I don't
+believe a word of it!'
+
+And with this parting shot Nancy ran into the cottage, and the boys
+returned to the village more slowly than they came.
+
+'Mother,' said Teddy that night, as his mother bent down for a
+'good-night' kiss, 'I haven't been good to-day, and I don't feel good
+now. I feel, when I think it over, so angry inside.'
+
+'What is it about, sonny?'
+
+'Father's button.' The tone was drowsy, and seeing his eyelids droop
+heavily Mrs. John said no more, only breathed a prayer that her little
+son might fight as bravely for Christ's honour as he did for that of his
+father's button.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A Recruiting Sergeant
+
+
+It was Sunday morning. Along a sweet-scented lane, with shady limes
+overhead and honeysuckle and wild roses growing in profusion on the
+hedges at each side, walked Teddy's mother, holding her little son
+tightly by the hand. The bells of the village church were ringing out for
+the service, and groups of two and three were passing in at the old lych
+gate. Mrs. John was talking in her sweet clear voice to her boy, and he,
+letting his restless blue eyes rove to and fro, noting every bird on the
+hedges and every flower in the path, kept bringing them back to his
+mother's face with a dreamy upward gaze. 'I will try, mother, I really
+will. I will keep my hands tight in my pockets, and my feet close
+together; I will pretend I'm going to be shot by a file of soldiers, and
+then I really think that will help me not to fidget. I promise you I'll
+be good to-day.'
+
+And having received this protestation from him, Mrs. John passed into
+church with a relieved mind. Teddy's restless little body was a sore
+trial to any one who sat next him in church, and many were the lectures
+that had been bestowed on him by Sunday-school teacher and pastor,
+besides the gentle admonitions of his mother.
+
+As Teddy quietly perched himself on the seat beside his mother, he
+murmured to himself, 'Twenty soldiers in front of me, twenty rifles
+pointing--I shall stand like a rock--I'll set my teeth, and I
+shan't even blink my eyes. Now I see the officer coming--he's going
+to say, "Present!" I'm not moving a muscle. Five minutes more
+they'll give me--'
+
+His active brain here received a check. There on the opposite side,
+facing him, was Nancy, seated between her mother and old Sol. She was
+still in her sailor suit, and with her dark mischievous brown eyes fixed
+steadily on him, Teddy could not remain unmoved beneath her gaze for
+long. His little hands were working nervously in his coat pockets. Why
+did she stare at him so? Well, he could stare back, and then blue eyes
+and brown confronted each other for some moments with unblinking defiance
+in their gaze. At last Teddy's patience gave way, and twisting up his
+little features into a most grotesque grimace, he mounted a hassock to
+give her the full benefit of it.
+
+Instantly, out came a little red tongue at him, and at this daring piece
+of audacity he gasped out loud, 'I hate you!' Then, as all eyes in the
+surrounding pews were turned upon him, and his mother's shocked gaze met
+his, Teddy crimsoned to the roots of his hair, and taking up a large
+Prayer-book, he used it as a shield from his small antagonist during the
+remainder of the service. As the congregation were leaving the church
+later on, the rector made his way to young Mrs. Platt, who was lingering
+talking to a neighbour. He was a grey-haired, gentle-faced man, with a
+slow dreamy manner in speaking.
+
+'Mrs. John, what has happened to make your little boy so forget himself
+this morning?'
+
+'Indeed, sir, I cannot say. I really thought he was going to be
+good to-day.'
+
+'I think he had better come to tea with me this afternoon, and we will
+have a little talk together.'
+
+Teddy looked up with awe in his blue eyes. He well knew that this was the
+rector's usual practice when any delinquent was brought before his
+notice, but it had never yet fallen to his lot to receive the invitation.
+Mr. Upton had his own way of doing things, so people said, and he had
+greater faith in reasoning with any culprits than scolding them, whether
+they were grown men, or women, or children.
+
+Teddy's restless ways in church had been a trial to him for a long time,
+and he felt that this morning's action must receive a check. 'Thank
+you, sir,' responded Mrs. John; 'he shall come to you after school is
+over this afternoon.'
+
+And Teddy, completely sobered, walked home beside his mother without
+uttering a word.
+
+At half-past four he stood on the rectory doorsteps looking into the cool
+broad hall in front of him, which led out of a glass door at the opposite
+end into a brilliant flower garden. Spotless white druggeting covered the
+floor and stairs, and everything indoors denoted a careful housekeeper.
+Mr. Upton was a widower, and was to a great extent ruled by two or three
+old and faithful servants.
+
+As the boy stood there the rector appeared, and led him into his study.
+
+'We shall have half an hour before tea, to have a little conversation, my
+boy. Sit down, and tell me what you have been learning at Sunday-school
+this afternoon.'
+
+'Teacher was telling us about the children of Israel in Egypt. I'm afraid
+I don't remember very much what he said, for I was busy thinking about
+coming to see you.'
+
+Mr. Upton smiled, and drew the child on to talk; then, after he was
+thoroughly at ease, he put a large Bible in front of him.
+
+'I want you to read me a verse in the First Epistle of St. John, and the
+third chapter. It is the fifteenth verse; can you find it?'
+
+'Yes, sir,' and with an eager importance Teddy turned over the leaves.
+
+'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,' he read solemnly.
+
+'That will do. Now think it over for five minutes in silence, and then
+tell me what your thoughts are about it.'
+
+The boy hung his head in shame; he folded his arms and sat immovable
+till the five minutes were over, then he said timidly, 'I wouldn't hate
+a brother. I'd like to have one. Do you think it means the same when
+it's a girl?'
+
+'Precisely the same--a brother means any person in the world, man, woman,
+or child.'
+
+'Then I ought to be hung.'
+
+There was much self-pity in Teddy's tone. Mr. Upton did not smile, he was
+gazing abstractedly out of the window, and said slowly, 'The root of
+murder is anger. The same motive that prompts a passionate statement,
+prompts a passionate and perhaps fatal blow.'
+
+There was silence; then in a more cheerful tone the rector turned to the
+little culprit.
+
+'And now tell me the whole story, and who it was that you spoke to
+in church.'
+
+Teddy was perfectly ready with his defence, and he poured into his
+listener's ears such a voluble story that the rector was quite bewildered
+when it came to an end. 'It's father's button I care about,' added the
+boy, fingering his beloved object proudly, 'and she didn't believe me a
+bit, and she put out her tongue as long as ever she could!'
+
+'Tell me the story of the button; I have heard, but have forgotten
+the details.'
+
+Teddy's eyes sparkled, and his little head was raised erect again.
+Slipping off his chair, he stood in front of the rector, and told the
+oft-repeated tale with dramatic force and effect. Mr. Upton listened with
+interest, but before he could offer any comment on it tea was announced,
+and taking the child by the hand he marched him into the dining-room.
+
+Hot tea-cakes, strawberry jam, and plum cake kept our little friend fully
+occupied for some time. He wondered if all the naughty boys interviewed
+by the rector had been treated to the same fare, and he began to think an
+invitation to Sunday tea at the rectory highly desirable.
+
+'And now,' said Mr. Upton, towards the end of the meal, 'I want some more
+talk with you. Your father was a brave soldier; he died in saving the
+colours. You want to grow up like him, do you not?'
+
+'Yes, sir, indeed I do.'
+
+'There is a little verse in God's Word that describes our Lord's
+banner--His colours. Will you say it after me?--"His banner over me was
+love."' Teddy repeated the verse slowly, and with interest.
+
+'It is a wonderful banner,' pursued Mr. Upton thoughtfully, 'the enemy
+confronted with it on every side. In the thick of the fight we can but
+hoist our colours, "Love." God's love to man, when man is fighting from
+his infancy against his Maker. What host would not march to meet the foe
+with such a banner dyed red with the life-blood of their Captain, the Son
+of God, the Saviour of the world?'
+
+Teddy drew a long breath, and when the rector paused, he cried
+enthusiastically, 'Please go on, sir. I like to hear it. Will God let me
+hold up the banner for Him?'
+
+'If you have enlisted in His service. Are you one of His soldiers?'
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'God always wants each of us to present ourselves to Him, if we want to
+enlist in His army. Have you done that? There must come a time in our
+lives when we yield ourselves wholly and unreservedly to the one who is
+our rightful owner. Why, my boy, do you believe that Jesus died upon the
+cross to save you? Did He bear your sins for you there?'
+
+'Yes,' said Teddy, fixing his blue eyes earnestly on the rector, 'I
+really believe He did, for mother has often explained it to me.'
+
+'Then how dare you stand aloof from His army? How is it that you have
+never enlisted? Are you marching along in the enemy's ranks?'
+
+Teddy's small hands were clenched, and his eyes lit up with a
+great resolve.
+
+'I'll enlist at once, sir. I'll be one of God's soldiers now.'
+
+'How are you going to do it?'
+
+'I don't know. Tell me, please.'
+
+There was silence. Mr. Upton met the child's earnest, upward gaze with
+awe, as he realised how much hung on his words. He had a firm belief in
+children being able to lead a consistent Christian life. He knew the
+Master would accept a child's heart, and guide and keep the frail and
+helpless steps on the way heavenward. And with a swift prayer for
+guidance he spoke.
+
+'You must tell God about it yourself, and don't be in a hurry. Kneel down
+quietly by yourself somewhere, and first of all ask that the Holy Spirit
+may guide you, that your sins may be blotted out, and your name written
+in the Book of Life, for the sake of Jesus who died for you. Then tell
+God you want Him to enlist you, and give yourself right up to Him for now
+and for all eternity.'
+
+Mr. Upton spoke slowly and emphatically; he knew he often preached above
+the heads of his little hearers, and he strove to speak in simple
+language now.
+
+Teddy remained very silent; then he said, 'And if I enlist, shall I have
+to be God's soldier for ever and ever, till I'm an old man of a hundred,
+with white hair and no teeth?'
+
+'Would you rather be one of the devil's soldiers?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'You are quite right to think it over. I would rather you did not decide
+too hastily. Go home and think it out. And come and tell me when you
+have decided.'
+
+The boy's white brow was crumpled with anxious creases.
+
+'I should like to be one of God's soldiers, but who shall I have to
+fight? Any real enemies, or only make believe?'
+
+'I will tell you about your enemies after you have enlisted. I can show
+you one very real one that is your worst enemy.'
+
+'Can you? A real live one?'
+
+'A real live one.'
+
+Teddy smiled contentedly.
+
+'Now,' added Mr. Upton, 'I am going to send you home. If you enlist, the
+first person you will have to hold up your banner to is that little girl
+whom you said you hated. Before you go I want to pray for you. Kneel
+down with me.'
+
+The evening sunshine streamed in through the open window, and alighting
+on the white hair of the minister and the boy's fair curls, as they knelt
+together, bathed them in a golden glory. With closed eyes and folded
+hands Teddy listened to Mr. Upton's prayer,--
+
+'Loving Father, another lamb I bring to Thee. Guide him in his decision,
+and if he enters Thy fold, use him and bless him through all eternity.
+Grant that he may fight a good fight, and be crowned with glory
+hereafter. For Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.'
+
+An hour later, and Teddy was seated by his mother's side in the old
+porch. His grandmother and uncle had gone to evening church, and Mrs.
+John was left with her boy alone.
+
+He had been telling her the substance of his conversation with the
+rector, and now curled up on the low wooden seat, his small legs crossed
+underneath him, he was gazing dreamily out into the sweet-scented garden.
+The bees were droning, and the gnats humming amongst the tall hollyhocks
+and crimson and white roses close by; the birds were already twittering
+their last 'good-nights' to one another, and a soft, peaceful spell
+seemed to be falling on all around.
+
+'I feel,' he said presently, as he gazed up into the still blue sky, 'as
+if God is waiting for me, mother.'
+
+Mrs. John did not answer. He added quickly, 'When did you enlist,
+mother; long, long ago?'
+
+'Yes, darling, just before I married your father.'
+
+'And when did father enlist? When he was a little boy like me?'
+
+'Not till he was a grown man, sonny. He often used to say he wished he
+had given his heart to God when he was younger.'
+
+'I suppose God will take little soldiers? Do you think I shall be the
+youngest He has?'
+
+'No, darling; He has many brave little soldiers younger than you.'
+
+Another long silence, then a deep-drawn sigh from Teddy.
+
+'I feel I have very big thoughts to-night, mother, and I get so crowded
+thinking. Will you read to me before I go to bed?'
+
+Mrs. John pressed her lips on the curly head so near her.
+
+'My boy, I am so glad for you to have these thoughts. Mother has often
+prayed that you may be one of Christ's little soldiers and servants. Now
+what shall I read?'
+
+'Read me about the three men and the burning fiery furnace.'
+
+And the young mother took her Bible in hand, and drawing her boy close to
+her till his little head rested against her shoulder, read him the story
+he wished.
+
+Later on, as she tucked him up in bed, and was giving him a kiss, he
+clasped his arms round her neck and whispered, 'I think I'm going to do
+it quite by myself to-morrow.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Enlisting for Life
+
+
+The village children were swarming out of school the next afternoon. The
+heat and confinement of the crowded schoolroom had not lessened the
+superabundance of energy and high spirits amongst them, and the boys soon
+congregated on the green, bent on a game of cricket.
+
+'Where's Teddy?' 'Teddy Platt!' 'Young Ted, where's he got to?' 'Fetch
+Teddy!' This was the general cry. But Teddy was nowhere to be seen.
+
+'Has he been kept in?' queried one.
+
+'Likely enough. He's up in the clouds to-day.'
+
+'Oh, ain't he just! Why, I offered him half such a huge apple. My! it
+was a beauty! And his eyes sort o' wandered away from it, as if it had
+been a piece of mud! "Thanks," ses he, "I'll have a bite
+to-morrer--not to-day."'
+
+'And teacher was down on him sharp, too,' put in another eager voice.
+'He answered all the 'rithmetic wrong, and he said forty soldiers made a
+rood! And teacher ses, "Is your head good for nothing but soldiers?" And
+Ted he got as red as fire, and says, "It's full of them to-day, sir";
+and teacher said, "Go down to the bottom of the class till you can empty
+it of them then, and tell me when you've done it." And when Ted comes
+next to me I says, "Is your button lost, old chap, that you're in such a
+stew?" And he says, "No, the button is all right, but I'm thinkin' how
+to enlist."'
+
+'He'll go for a drummer-boy as soon as he's big enough, and I'll go with
+him!' cried Carrots.
+
+'Oh, come on,' shouted one of the impatient ones; 'if Ted's not here, let
+us begin without him.'
+
+And Teddy's delinquencies at school were soon forgotten in the excitement
+of the game.
+
+He had not been kept in, but had slipped away the minute school was over,
+and was soon dodging in and out of the thick overhanging trees along the
+edge of his favourite stream. His little feet sped swiftly along, and as
+he ran he talked in a whisper to himself, which was his way when anything
+special was weighing on his mind. 'I'll go right into the wood, and get
+under a thick tree. I won't let a squirrel see me, nor even a rabbit. I
+must be quite quiet, and it must be like church, and I shan't come away
+till I've done it.'
+
+Into the wood he went, but he was hard to satisfy; roaming here and
+there, peeping round corners, and thrusting his curly head in amongst the
+bushes, it was fully half an hour before he chose his spot.
+
+It was a secluded little nook under an old oak-tree, where the moss grew
+thick and green, and bushes of all sorts and sizes formed a natural bower
+round the gnarled trunk. In front of this tree Teddy stood, and then,
+half shyly, half reverently, he took off his cap and laid it on the
+ground. Looking up through the veil of green leaves above him to the
+sunny blue sky beyond, he stood with clasped hands and parted lips for a
+moment or two in perfect silence. The soft wind played gently with his
+curls, and rustled amongst the leafy boughs overhead, and in the distance
+the birds' sweet voices were the only sounds that met his ears. As the
+boy's eyes came back to earth they seemed to have reflected in them
+something of the bright sunshine above, and then down on his knees he
+dropped. Placing his little clasped hands against the old trunk in front
+of him, and bending his golden head till it rested likewise against the
+tree, Teddy prayed aloud, slowly, and with frequent pauses,--
+
+'O God! here I am. Have You been waiting for me? I've come to enlist.
+And, please, I forget all Mr. Upton told me to say; but will You forgive
+me my sins, and write my name down in Your book in heaven?--Edward James
+Platt is my name. I've come to be Your soldier for ever and ever. Will
+You please keep me always? I never want to go back from being Your
+soldier. Make me fight a grand fight, and help me to hold Your colours up
+well; and please, God, will You tell father I've enlisted this afternoon?
+Mr. Upton said You would take me. I thank You for letting Jesus die for
+me, and I'm very sorry I haven't belonged to His army before, but I
+didn't quite understand that He wanted me. Help me to be a good boy, for
+Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.'
+
+A child's prayer, but it was prayed with a child's strong faith, and as
+Teddy rose to his feet, he had the assurance that God had accepted him.
+That scene in the wood, when he dedicated himself to the service of the
+King of kings, would be stamped on his memory as long as he lived. And
+now that the deed was done a great load seemed to be lifted off his mind.
+He came into the midst of the boys on the green a short time afterwards
+with a radiant face, and took his share in fielding, bowling, and batting
+with such a vigour and will, that he proved himself the hero of the hour.
+Later in the evening he wandered into the dairy, where his mother was
+busy, and asked her if he could go and see the rector.
+
+'What for, sonny?'
+
+'He asked me to come. Is it too late, do you think? I should like to go
+to-night.'
+
+Mrs. John looked down upon the eager little face lifted to hers.
+
+'Run away, then; but don't stay long.'
+
+And so it was that for the second time that week Teddy was a visitor at
+the rectory.
+
+'Please, sir, I've done it!' he exclaimed breathlessly, as soon as he was
+ushered into the presence of the rector.
+
+'Eh? What have you been doing?'
+
+And Mr. Upton roused himself from a reverie into which he had fallen as
+he sat at his study window and watched his favourite beehives. Then,
+noting the disappointed look on the child's face, and recognising who
+it was, he added briskly, 'Ah! it is Teddy Platt, is it? And so you've
+done it, have you? Thank God! Yes, I remember all about it. You're a
+fresh recruit.'
+
+Teddy's eyes glistened. 'I enlisted this afternoon, sir.'
+
+'For life, did you? No short-service system with God!'
+
+Mr. Upton had at one time been chaplain to troops abroad, and it was his
+knowledge of military matters that so attracted the boy.
+
+'Yes, for life, sir.'
+
+'May God keep you true to Himself, my boy, in life and in death!'
+
+There was a pause, then Teddy said eagerly, 'Please, sir, you said you
+would show me one of the enemies I have got to fight.'
+
+'Ah! did I? One of the many--which one, I wonder?'
+
+'"A real live one," you said.'
+
+'Yes, I remember. Come this way.'
+
+He led the child into his drawing-room in front of a large mirror
+reaching down to the ground, and told him to find his enemy there.
+
+'Why, it's only myself!' Teddy said in a disappointed tone, though there
+was wonder in his eyes.
+
+'That's it--yourself--small Teddy Platt is your worst enemy, and the
+older you live the more you will discover what a very formidable and
+mighty enemy he is.'
+
+'Please, sir, I don't understand.'
+
+'Sit down here, by me, and let me try to explain it to you. If you are
+going to try to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, you will find that you will
+have two Teddies to deal with--a good one and a bad one. The bad one is
+your enemy. Now, you told me you were angry with that little girl. Are
+you angry still?'
+
+'I've forgotten all about her. I--I don't love her.'
+
+'The bad Teddy in you doesn't like her, but the good Teddy will. Now you
+must fight against the bad Teddy, and overcome him. Jesus will help you;
+you can't fight without Him.'
+
+'I think I know,' said Teddy thoughtfully. 'Last week some fellow said,
+"Come and get some apples from the Park orchard." I wanted to, dreadful.
+That was my bad self, but I thought it would be stealing, and I didn't
+go. That was my good self, wasn't it?'
+
+'Quite right! Keep close to your Captain. Our Officer always leads, and
+remember--"Forward! no quarter to the enemy!"'
+
+Then gazing abstractedly out into the garden, Mr. Upton added, as if to
+himself, 'But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of
+my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my
+members.... Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God
+through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the
+law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.'
+
+The next day when at dinner, for it was generally at meal-times Teddy
+chose to make his observations, he looked round the table appealingly,--
+
+'What's the very ugliest name that could be given a boy?'
+
+'Sakes alive!' ejaculated his grandmother. 'And who may you be wanting to
+christen?'
+
+'It isn't for a baby; a boy about as old as me. What do you think's an
+ugly name?'
+
+'I don't think any name is very ugly,' his mother said. 'If you like a
+person, their name always seems to fit. I knew two boys named Tobiah and
+Eli. I didn't like the names at first, though they are Bible ones, but
+when I got to know and like the boys I liked the names.'
+
+'I want a much more hideous name,' asserted Teddy; 'some name that would
+describe a very wicked person.'
+
+'I hope you are not going to call any one by it,' observed his
+grandmother suspiciously.
+
+Teddy lifted his blue eyes up to her solemnly. 'I expect I'll find one
+for myself,' he said; and nothing more could be got out of him.
+
+After dinner, a half-holiday having been given the school-children, Teddy
+stole out to the woods. When out of sight he began a brisk conversation
+with himself, as was his wont; and it may give us an insight into his
+busy brain if we listen.
+
+'Blackey might do, or Goggles, or Grubby, or Nigger, or Toad. I want to
+have some name, else I shan't be able to talk to him so well. I wish
+mother had helped me; it's very differcult. I can't seem to think of a
+name quite ugly enough. I expect p'raps Mr. Upton could tell me. I'll
+wait and ask him. I hope I shan't have to wait long, for I want it all
+settled, so that I can begin to fight properly with him. Now I've got to
+find Nancy. Mr. Upton said I was to be friends with her, and I've got to
+hold up my banner of love over her. I hope she'll like it. She's a
+horrid--Aha, that's my enemy just going to speak! A horrid girl, you
+were going to say, were you? Now you just get out. Nancy is a very nice
+girl--at least, she soon will be. I'll try and think her nice, I will.
+I've got to fight you, enemy, if you say such things. Why, I do 'clare,
+there she is climbing that tree!'
+
+Teddy's conversation came to an end, and he stared with open mouth and
+eyes at the nimble way Nancy was climbing up an old beech-tree. He gave a
+shrill whistle, which made the little girl look round. Not a bit
+disconcerted was she.
+
+'Aha, it's the stupid little button-boy. You can't catch me!'
+
+It was a challenge. Instantly Teddy stripped off his jacket, and darted
+to the tree. She had got a good start, and even he caught his breath in
+wonder at her rapid ascent, and the fearless way in which she seemed to
+plant her small feet on the most fragile-looking branches. Up they
+went, panting with the exercise; but at length she could go no further,
+and seating herself on a comfortable bough she looked mischievously
+down at him.
+
+'You couldn't catch me; you don't know how to climb! My father taught me.
+I can go up the rigging as far as any sailor boy, and this is my ship,
+but I'll let you sit down by me if you behave yourself.'
+
+Teddy swung himself across a bough opposite her, and was silent for a
+moment. Each child was trying to recover breath, and Teddy was
+considering how to make peace. He did it in his own quaint fashion.
+
+'I think we're pretty close to heaven,' he remarked presently, lifting
+his soft blue eyes to the clear sky above. 'I wonder if that's the reason
+birds in their nests agree? The angels can't like to hear quallering so
+close to them.'
+
+'I'm not going to quarrel, and you didn't say that word right'
+
+'What word?'
+
+'Quarrering.' And Nancy's tone was emphatic, though a doubt stole into
+her own mind as to whether her pronunciation was correct. But Teddy was
+too intent upon pulling something out of his pocket to notice her
+correction. He slowly unrolled a large white pocket-handkerchief, tied it
+carefully to a twig, which he broke off from an adjoining branch, and
+then held it up in front of her.
+
+'I did it myself this morning,' he said with pride. 'I asked Uncle Jake
+for one of his best handkerchiefs. He gave it to me last night, and I did
+it with a pen and ink before breakfast. Can you read it?
+
+Nancy looked at the straggling, uneven black letters that occupied the
+whole width across.
+
+'Love?' she said curiously; 'what does that mean?'
+
+'It's my banner of love that I'm going to carry for my Captain. It means
+I've got to love even you.'
+
+Nancy's red lips pouted. 'I don't want you to love me,' she said.
+
+'I've got to do it.'
+
+'How are you going to do it?'
+
+'I'm--I'm not quite sure. I'm never going to be angry with you. And it's
+very hard--'
+
+Here a deep-drawn sigh broke from him. 'It's _very_ hard, but I've got to
+tell you I'm sorry I wouldn't let you cross the bridge first, and I'm
+sorry I said I hated you in church.'
+
+Nancy's bright dark eyes peered inquisitively into the dreamy blue ones
+opposite her.
+
+'Are you really sorry?' she said.
+
+'I think I am, at least part of me is; my enemy isn't, but I am.'
+
+This was beyond Nancy's comprehension.
+
+'And you'll never get angry, or set those horrid boys at me any more?'
+
+'No, I never will.'
+
+Here a big rosy-cheeked apple was produced hastily out of the other
+pocket, and presented as a peace offering.
+
+It was taken in silence; then as Nancy's white little teeth met in it she
+said, with one of her beaming smiles, 'And have I got to love you?'
+
+'I think you had better, because it will make it easier.'
+
+'Well, I will then, if you'll do one thing.'
+
+'What is it?'
+
+'Give me that old button of yours.'
+
+Teddy fairly gasped at this audacity.
+
+'Give you father's button!' he cried; 'never, never, never! I'd rather be
+shot dead, or drownded dead, or hung dead, or chopped into little tiny
+bits! I'll _never_ give it up! It's going to be on my coats and
+waistcoats till I'm a hundred, and then it will be buried in my grave
+with me. Suppose I lost my button, do you know what I would do?'
+
+Nancy gazed at the young orator with a little awe.
+
+'No,' she said; 'what?'
+
+'I would drop down and die, my heart would burst and break, and if I
+couldn't die very quick, I wouldn't eat or drink nothing, but I'd go
+sadly to my grave and lay my head down, and the next morning you would
+find me stiff and cold with my glassy eyes staring up at the sky, like an
+old dog I read about.'
+
+Teddy's tone was so intensely tragic that Nancy was silent. At last she
+said, 'I'll never love you proper till you give it to me.'
+
+'Will you like me a little instead?'
+
+'I might do that,' she replied reluctantly.
+
+'And you won't never say you don't believe father's story?'
+
+'I aren't going to promise.'
+
+Then, as the very last bite was taken of the apple, she added, 'I'll hear
+some more of your stories first. I want to hear one now. Sally White told
+me at school you know all about fairies.'
+
+Teddy nodded impressively, then said slowly, 'I make believe I do, but I
+don't make believe father's story.'
+
+'Tell me a story now.'
+
+Teddy clasped his hands round a bough, and with knitted brows considered.
+Then he looked up, and the light sparkled in his eyes.
+
+'Shall I tell you about when I went into an oak-tree, and found a little
+door leading down some steps that took me to the goblin's cave?'
+
+This sounded enchanting, and Nancy eagerly prepared herself to listen.
+Such a story was then poured out that it held her spell-bound. Goblins,
+elves, and fairies, underground glories, thrilling adventures and
+escapes. Was it any wonder that with such a gift for story-telling Teddy
+was the king of the village? It came to an end at last, and Nancy drew a
+long breath of relief and content when she heard the concluding
+sentence, 'And I quickly opened the little door, and there I was outside
+the oak, and safe in the wood again.'
+
+'Button-boy, I do like you,' she asserted, with a quick little nod of her
+head. 'Will you tell me another story soon?'
+
+'P'raps I will,' said Teddy, feeling a little elated that he was gaining
+supremacy over her, 'but I'm going home now. I only came out to have a
+think, and to make friends with you.'
+
+'What made you come and make it up?' the little maiden asked, as after a
+scramble down, they stood at the foot of the tree. 'You said something
+about your Captain; who is He?'
+
+'Jesus Christ,' Teddy replied reverently, 'and His banner is love, so I
+have to love everybody, whether I like them or not.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Because He wants me to, and I'm one of His soldiers now.'
+
+'Has Jesus any sailors?'
+
+The question was put suddenly, and the answer was given with a slight air
+of superiority, 'No only soldiers He has.'
+
+'Then I don't want to belong to Him. I believe He has sailors just as
+well as soldiers, only you're not telling true.'
+
+Her tone was getting wrathful, but Teddy shook his head solemnly. 'I'm
+sure there's nothing about Jesus' sailors in the Bible; but I'll ask
+mother, and then I'll tell you. I must go home now. Good-bye. We're
+going to be friends?'
+
+'Yes, we're going to be friends,' she repeated; and then away they
+scampered in different directions, Nancy calling out, like a true little
+woman, 'But I shan't really love you till you give me your button.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+First Victories
+
+
+'Please, sir, may I speak to you?'
+
+Mr. Upton was coming out of church after a choir practice, when Teddy
+accosted him.
+
+He smiled when he saw the boy. 'You may walk home with me and speak to me
+as much as you like.'
+
+And so they sauntered up the shady lane, the old rector with his head
+bent and his hands crossed behind him, and the boy all eager excitement
+and motion, with suppressed importance in his tone.
+
+'I want you to give me a name for my enemy, please, sir.'
+
+Mr. Upton looked amused. 'Have you had any battles with him yet?'
+
+'I think I had one yesterday. May I tell you? Granny was very angry with
+me because I had made Uncle Jake's best handkerchief into a banner of
+love. I didn't really think it was naughty. I wrote "Love" in ink right
+across it; and I took such pains, for I wanted to show it to Nancy. And
+when I got home granny was so angry that she took me by the collar and
+she locked me into the back kitchen; and mother was out, and I cried, I
+was so miserable. Granny said I would come to the workhouse; she called
+me the wickedest, mischievousest boy she'd ever seen, and said she would
+like to give me a good whipping. And at last I got tired of being
+miserable, and I looked about, and I saw the window was partly open, so I
+climbed up, and then I thought I would jump out and run away across the
+fields till mother came home. And I was very happy then, and I jumped
+right out, and then I remembered, but I didn't want to go back again.'
+
+'And then the fight began?' suggested the rector, as the boy paused.
+
+Teddy nodded. 'I asked God to drive my enemy away, but I was an awful
+long time thinking it out. Is thinking fighting?'
+
+'Very often it is.'
+
+'I did fight hard, then; and I climbed in again. Was that being a
+soldier?'
+
+'Yes, my boy.'
+
+'And granny let me out soon after; and I kissed her and said I was sorry,
+but I told her how nearly I had run away, and asked her to see that the
+window was locked next time, so that I shouldn't have to fight so hard.'
+
+'You will have plenty of fighting. Don't shirk the hottest part of the
+field; that isn't being brave.'
+
+'Will you give me a horrid, ugly name, please, sir?'
+
+'I thought your enemy's name was Teddy.'
+
+'No, that's mine; I must have a name for him--a different one, you know.'
+
+'How do you like Ego or Ipse?'
+
+'What funny names! I think I like Ipse best I'll call him Ipse, shall I?'
+
+But Mr. Upton's thoughts were far away by this time, and presently he
+said, as if to himself, '"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
+death." "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through
+Him that loved us." It is a fight with certain victory ahead; then why
+do we fail?'
+
+'Shall I fail?' questioned a soft voice by his side.
+
+'"Without Me ye can do nothing." That's our Captain's word: if you fight
+without Him, you are done for.'
+
+'I think I shall sometimes let Ipse have his way. Will that be deserting
+to the enemy?'
+
+'It will be sure and certain defeat.'
+
+'But then, of course, my Captain won't let me be beaten, if I stick
+close to Him.'
+
+And so they talked, a strange couple; but the younger of them had a faith
+which the elder might envy, and a grasp of the unseen that the ripest
+saint could not surpass.
+
+Not long after this, Teddy and his schoolfellows were having a
+delightful afternoon in the woods. It was Saturday afternoon, and they
+were playing their favourite war game, Teddy, of course, being prime
+instigator of the whole affair. A few of the more adventurous girls had
+joined them, Nancy amongst them. Her respect for Teddy was gradually
+increasing, though nothing seemed to quench her self-assertion and
+independence of thought and action. At length Teddy announced his
+intention of going off on an expedition as a scout, and on Nancy's
+insisting that she should come too, the two children started, made their
+way out of the wood and down to the banks of the stream, which soon
+joined the river.
+
+'What have we to do?' asked Nancy.
+
+'It's great fun. You see, every one we meet is an enemy, and we have to
+get past them without them seeing us; we must crawl through the long
+grass, or we must climb a tree, or get through the bushes; all kinds of
+adventures we have.'
+
+'And if we don't meet anybody?'
+
+'That's why I came down this way: there are always a lot of people
+fishing in the river. Now look out, don't you talk loud, and step softly.
+Just think that the first person who sees us will shoot us dead.'
+
+'But they won't.'
+
+'You must make believe they will.' Teddy's tone was stern, and Nancy
+was too occupied in holding her hat on her head as they crept through
+some low bushes to advance any more sceptical opinions.
+
+And then suddenly, a short time after, they came upon a fisherman. It was
+only a burly farmer, who was evidently making a day of it, for he sat
+under the shade of a tree with the remnants of a substantial lunch around
+him; his fishing-rod was in his hand, but the line was out of the water,
+and he, with head thrown back and mouth wide open, was fast asleep.
+
+'Hush!' said Teddy, in an excited whisper. 'If he wakes, all is up with
+us; now let's get past him on tiptoe.'
+
+This was accomplished safely; but having passed him Teddy stood still,
+and the spirit of mischief seized hold of him. Turning to Nancy, he said,
+with sparkling eyes, 'What fun to take him prisoner and tie him up to the
+tree with his own fishing-line! He's an enemy; I really think it's our
+duty to do it. You stay here and watch me.'
+
+Deftly and quickly Teddy set to work, but when he had once passed the
+line round the farmer's body and the tree, he had no difficulty in
+finishing the work he had begun. Dancing like an elf with the line in
+his hand, he spun round and round the tree till the line was wound round
+to its very last extremity, and the farmer looked like some big
+bluebottle fly entangled in the fine meshes of a spider's web. Still he
+slept on, and with a delighted chuckle Teddy sped back to his little
+companion; her eyes were dancing with mirth, and she clapped her hands
+at the successful exploit.
+
+'He'll wake up and won't be able to get away. What fun! how I should like
+to see him!'
+
+'Come on quick. He's Farmer Green, and he's an awful angry man; he gave
+Sam such a thrashing for tying an old saucepan to one of his pigs' tails.
+He won't know who has done it, and I did tie the knots awful tight.'
+
+Away they ran; but they had not proceeded far before Teddy came to a
+standstill, and all the saucy sparkle died out of his eyes.
+
+'What's the matter?' asked Nancy. 'Have you got a pain?'
+
+'I'm afraid I am going to have a fight with Ipse.'
+
+The words were uttered almost in a whisper, and Nancy looked on
+with wonder.
+
+'It isn't right,' he said, after a long pause. 'I do want--at least, Ipse
+wants--to leave him there awfully, but mother would say it was very
+naughty, and I think--I think my Captain doesn't like it. I shall have to
+go back and undo him.'
+
+'Oh, you mustn't!' cried Nancy. 'You'll wake him up, and then you'll
+catch it! Let him undo himself!' Teddy shook his head, and then stole
+softly back to the tree, Nancy following him at a respectful distance.
+
+It seemed a harder business to untie the knots than to tie them, but at
+length it was done, and the unwinding process began. Alas! Farmer
+Green's nap was over, and with a hasty start he was roused to the full
+use of his faculties. When he discovered his condition he swore a round
+oath, and turned upon Teddy in great wrath, as he vainly tried to
+extricate himself.
+
+'Please, sir,' said Teddy, nothing daunted, 'if you keep still, I shall
+undo you very soon, and I won't break your line if I can help it.'
+
+'You young scoundrel! how dare you show your face, after such an
+audacious piece of impudence! You're the plague of the parish, and a good
+thrashing is what you will get, sure as my name's Jonathan Green!'
+
+Teddy's face was hot and red, and the spectacle of him trying to unwind
+the line from the struggling and exasperated farmer was so irresistibly
+comic to Nancy that she burst out laughing.
+
+Jonathan Green was soon on his feet again, and seizing hold of Teddy by
+the collar, shook him like a terrier would shake a rat; then, without
+leaving go of him, he pulled out a piece of cord from his coat pocket.
+'Now, I'll teach you a lesson, youngster, that you won't forget. It's
+lucky I've got this bit o' rope.'
+
+And in another few minutes he had bound the boy securely to the tree,
+tying his hands together with his handkerchief; then, as Nancy stepped
+forward, indignant at this severe treatment, he turned upon her.
+
+'There are two of you, are there? Well, you shall share the same fate
+till I think fit to release you. I'll teach you to stop playing such
+impish tricks on decent folk.'
+
+'You're the wickedest man that's living, I'm sure!' cried Nancy
+wrathfully. 'Why, he was undoing you when you woke up, which was very
+kind of him. I wish he'd left you tied up, I do!'
+
+But Farmer Green, with a grim smile of satisfaction, soon settled her in
+the same fashion as he had done the boy; and then, picking up his
+fishing-basket, strode away, calling out, 'Ye'll bide there my time, ye
+young limbs of mischief! It's only serving like ye serve!'
+
+'Button-boy, did he hurt you?' asked Nancy anxiously; for all this time
+Teddy had not said a word.
+
+He turned his head and looked at her. 'I feel shooken up dreadful, he's
+so awful strong; but I'm not very hurt, only I'm sorry, and I've been
+telling my Captain about it, and asking Him to forgive me.'
+
+'Shall we stay here all the evening and all the night?'
+
+'Oh no! he'll come and let us go soon. It isn't fair on you, for you
+didn't do anything.'
+
+'I laughed at him, and I wanted you to leave him tied up. But I don't
+care, it doesn't hurt. You haven't told me ever what I asked you about
+Jesus' sailors. Tell me now, because I want to belong to your Captain,
+and I'm not going to be a soldier.'
+
+'I did ask mother, and she said sailors were soldiers, they were sea
+soldiers. You'll have to be a soldier, I expect.'
+
+'Sailors fight, I know they do. Grandfather read me about Nelson the
+other evening, and showed me a picture of sailors cutting the enemy's
+arms off, as they tried to scramble on board ship. I shan't never change
+to soldiers. Sailors are _much_ nicer. And if sailors fight, I can be a
+sailor for Jesus.'
+
+Their conversation was interrupted by voices and steps approaching, and
+in another moment two ladies and a gentleman appeared, evidently going
+home after a fishing excursion. The path led past the tree, and they
+stopped in astonishment at the sight of the two children.
+
+Teddy was the first to speak. He recognised the newcomers to be the
+squire, Colonel Graham, and his wife, with a visitor staying with them.
+'Please, sir, will you undo us?' he asked appealingly.
+
+The colonel laughed heartily. 'Ah! young fellow, you're caught, are you?
+Lady Helen, this is one of the young hopefuls in our village, I have been
+told the ringleader in every bit of mischief set going! You wouldn't
+think it to look at him, would you?'
+
+'What an angel's face!' said that lady admiringly. 'And who is the little
+girl? she looks a regular little gipsy!'
+
+Neither of the children appreciated these remarks, but the colonel
+good-naturedly put down his fishing-basket and cut the piece of rope that
+bound them.
+
+'Now, then, youngster!' he said, 'speak up and tell us who bound you in
+this fashion, and what have you been doing to merit such punishment?'
+
+Having got his hands free, Teddy stood up bravely and told the story
+briefly and clearly, to the great amusement of his hearers.
+
+'And he would never have been caught if he hadn't gone back to undo him,'
+put in Nancy; 'so he oughtn't to have been punished at all.'
+
+'What made you go back, my boy?' asked Mrs. Graham gently.
+
+The colour rose in Teddy's cheeks, but he never hesitated to speak
+the truth.
+
+'I went back when I remembered it was wrong to have done it,' he
+said simply.
+
+'But you are not such a paragon of goodness generally,' said the
+colonel. 'Wasn't it you and some others who scared our dairymaid into
+fits one night last winter, by playing pranks, after dark, outside the
+dairy window?'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said Teddy humbly.
+
+'And why didn't you run away when the old man woke?' asked Lady Helen.
+
+'I never run away from anybody,' said Teddy, his head more erect than
+ever. 'I'm a soldier's son.'
+
+'Capital, my boy; and so your father is a soldier? What regiment?'
+
+'He's dead, sir. May I tell you father's story?'
+
+'Oh! ah! I remember now, though I'm not sure that I recollect the
+details,' said the colonel musingly. 'Your father was John Platt, who
+enlisted in one of the line regiments--the 24th, wasn't it? Tell us the
+story by all means.'
+
+Teddy obeyed delightedly, not seeing in the interest of his tale how
+keenly he was being watched by the ladies. He told it as he always did,
+with enthusiastic effect, and when he offered to show the ladies his
+button they were charmed with him. The colonel patted him on his head as
+he left, saying, 'Keep your father's spirit in you, my lad, and you'll
+live to do something great yet!' 'I should like to have him as a
+page-boy,' said Lady Helen, as they walked away. 'What a sensitive,
+refined little face it is!'
+
+'Too good to be spoilt by house service,' said Colonel Graham. 'His
+mother is a superior young woman, with a very good education, and the
+Platts are highly respected about here.'
+
+The children ran back to their playfellows considerably sobered by their
+experience, and Teddy very soon made his way home, and told his mother
+all that had befallen him.
+
+'It's dreadful difficult to remember in time, mother. I'm not a very good
+soldier, am I? Do you think I ought to love old Farmer Green? If you
+won't tell any one, I've been having a talk with Ipse--he's my enemy, Mr.
+Upton told me about--and he--he hates Farmer Green; but I tell him the
+banner is "Love," and we must try to love him; and how can I show him I
+love him, mother?'
+
+'I think you must wait a little, sonny. Don't do anything just yet,
+but try and not have angry thoughts about him. You know it was very
+naughty of you to act so. I am not a bit surprised that he lost his
+temper over it.'
+
+'I'll never tie up anybody again, mother, never!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Redcoats
+
+
+'Mother, grandmother, some soldiers are coming here!'
+
+Teddy tore into the house one morning after school with this
+announcement, and his face was radiant with delight. His mother was
+laying the cloth for dinner, and old Mrs. Platt was busy dishing up
+some potatoes.
+
+'Who told you?' asked the latter.
+
+'I saw one--a real live soldier, a corporal with two gold stripes on his
+red coat, and such white gloves; and I went up to him and talked to him.'
+
+'Certainly modesty is lacking with you,' observed Mrs. Platt drily.
+
+'Shyness is,' said Mrs. John rather quickly; 'but he doesn't show
+forwardness as a rule.'
+
+'Sam and Carrots and lots of the boys were with me, mother. He told us
+that he and one or two more had come on to get billets--that's the
+word--billets for the regiment that was marching through on their way to
+Wales; and we shall see them come marching through the village in a few
+days. He said most of them were going to put up in the town, but twenty
+were coming to the Hare and Hounds, and they're going to sleep there.
+He's such a nice man, mother; he's only going to sleep here to-night, and
+then he's going on to-morrow to get some more billets ready in the next
+town he comes to. Couldn't he come to tea this afternoon? Do let me ask
+him, granny!'
+
+Mrs. Platt laughed not ill-humouredly. 'You would have us take in any
+scoundrel, provided he wore a red coat, wouldn't you?'
+
+'Soldiers are never scoundrels!' asserted Teddy with hot indignation.
+
+'Do you know all the soldiers in the British Army, then?' said his
+grandmother.
+
+'I daresay he wouldn't care to come to tea with strangers, sonny,' put in
+Mrs. John gently.
+
+'I'm sure he would, for he doesn't like the Hare and Hounds. He said he
+was a teetotaller.'
+
+'Come, that sounds good,' Mrs. Platt remarked. 'Well, you can ask him in
+for your father's sake.'
+
+Not much dinner could Teddy eat that day, and his lessons at school had
+never seemed so irksome to him; but they were over at last, and he tore
+off in search of his new friend, finding him at length sitting under an
+old yew-tree just outside the churchyard.
+
+'Granny says will you come to tea with us?' he asked breathlessly, as he
+came up to him.
+
+The corporal looked up. He was a fine-looking young man with a frank,
+bright face, and he was reading a well-worn Bible, which he put carefully
+in his pocket before he rose to his feet.
+
+'That's very kind of your granny,' he said; 'and I'll come with pleasure.
+I'm out of it at the Hare and Hounds.'
+
+Teddy's quick eyes had spied the Bible.
+
+'Do you like the Bible?' he asked gravely.
+
+'It's my order book,' the corporal said with a smile, 'and my best friend
+in the world.'
+
+'What's an order book?'
+
+'It gives you your daily commands--just what you are to do and where
+you're to go. My Captain writes my orders down in His Word for me.'
+
+'He's my Captain too,' said Teddy with glistening eyes. 'You mean Jesus,
+don't you? I've enlisted in His army, and I'm one of His soldiers.'
+
+'Shake hands, little brother, then; we're comrades after all.'
+
+'Are all soldiers in Jesus Christ's army?' asked Teddy as they walked
+away together.
+
+The corporal shook his head sadly. 'Hardly any of them in my regiment,'
+he said. 'We're nearly seven hundred strong, and only six men besides
+myself, as far as I can tell, belong to the Lord. A year ago I was an
+awful blackguard myself: I drank dreadfully, and couldn't give the drink
+up; but that's all a thing of the past. Since I have belonged to the Lord
+He keeps me from it, and many other bad habits. I'll own I fairly
+dreaded coming to this bit of duty. The sight and smell of the beer is
+very strong to a man that has been such a slave to it, and I must be
+quartered in public-houses the whole way along.'
+
+'You'll have to fight like Mr. Upton told me to, won't you?' said Teddy.
+'But if our Captain is with us, Mr. Upton says we shan't be beaten.'
+
+'No,' said the corporal, a light coming into his eyes. 'We shall be more
+than conquerors.'
+
+Then, after a pause, he said, 'It's very considerate of your granny to
+ask me to tea; I was just wishing that something could be done in this
+village for the men coming after me, like we had last year when we
+marched through the country for the manoeuvres. They gave us a free tea
+at several of the places we went through, and it kept so many from
+drinking. There's a man coming along here who I'm terrible anxious about.
+He's been an awful drunkard, and is quite an old soldier; but last New
+Year's Day he signed the pledge, and he's kept it ever since: he's just
+on the point of being converted, I hope. We have yarns by the hour
+together, but if he's billeted in the Hare and Hounds, or any other
+public-house, for that matter, I don't know what he'll do. There's
+nothing for them when they come in tired but to sit in the bar or
+tap-room and drink. They can't get away from it.' Teddy's brow was
+knitted with deep thought.
+
+'I didn't know soldiers drank too much,' he said. 'I thought they never
+did anything wrong.'
+
+The corporal smiled. 'It isn't many that is of your opinion,' he said.
+'Most folks put us down as a bad lot.'
+
+That evening remained in his memory for long after: the sweet-scented
+garden, and the long low kitchen, with the happy family party gathered
+round the table; the clumsy efforts of the reticent farmer to make his
+guest feel at home; the short, pithy remarks made by Mrs. Platt, and the
+gentle, soft-voiced young mother, with the golden-haired boy, continually
+asking quaint questions about a soldier's life--all this came back to him
+with a keen sense of pleasure in after years. He was only a young fellow
+after all, and was touched and gratified by the kindness shown to him,
+for it made him think of his own mother in her village home; and when he
+took his leave he could hardly express his thanks.
+
+Teddy had been allowed to sit up beyond his usual bedtime, and as he put
+his little hand into the big brown one of the young soldier he said, 'Do
+you mind telling me your name, corporal?'
+
+'Walter Saxby,' was the ready response.
+
+'And what's the name of the poor old soldier who signed the pledge on New
+Year's Day?'
+
+'Tim Stokes; he's called Bouncer by most of us.'
+
+'I shall remember,' said Teddy; then turning to his mother and
+grandmother after Corporal Saxby had disappeared, he said solemnly, 'I
+may bring Bouncer to tea, mayn't I, if I find him? Corporal told me he
+hadn't properly enlisted as Jesus' soldier, but he wants to. Do you think
+Mr. Upton could get him to enlist while he's here? Or could you, granny?
+P'raps he'd do it for you.'
+
+'I don't know what that boy will come to,' said Mrs. Platt later on, when
+Teddy was safe in bed; 'seems to me he has more the making of a minister
+in him than a soldier. I don't hold with children being too religious;
+it's forced and unnatural.'
+
+'He ain't too good to live,' put in Jake slowly; 'no youngster can beat
+him in play.'
+
+'I often wonder,' Mrs. John said thoughtfully, 'whether he will be a
+soldier after all; he is almost too sensitive to lead the hard, rough
+life so many do. I doubt if he could stand it.'
+
+'He's not wanting in pluck and manliness,' Mrs. Platt observed, for she
+always had a good word to say for her little grandson when he was not
+present. 'I found him this morning careering round the field on that
+fresh young foal, without any saddle or bridle! I gave him a sharp
+scolding, for it was kicking up its hind legs like mad; but he only
+looked up in my face and laughed. "It's my charger, granny," he says,
+"and he smells the battle-field; that's why he's so excited!" I'm sorry
+these soldiers are going to fill the place; he thinks and talks quite
+enough of them as it is. We shan't have a moment's peace now till
+they're gone.'
+
+Teddy was up very early the next morning to see his friend go off. He had
+another long conversation with him before wishing him good-bye; and then,
+with thoughtful face, he went to school, revolving many plans in his
+active little brain, and making innumerable mistakes in his lessons in
+consequence. At twelve o'clock, when free at last, he made his way to the
+rectory and asked for Mr. Upton, who greeted him very kindly.
+
+'Any more troubles to tell me?'
+
+'No, sir; but I want to tell you about the soldiers who are coming.'
+
+'I have heard about them. It will be a grand time for you, won't it?'
+
+'Please, sir, could you have a tea-party for them?'
+
+Mr. Upton pushed up his glasses and looked very bewildered.
+
+'A tea-party, did you say?'
+
+'Yes; the corporal said a clergyman gave one hundred tea in a
+schoolroom last year, and spoke to them after. The corporal said it
+would keep them from drinking in the public-houses. He came to tea
+with us last night; but granny won't have a lot of them, so I told him
+I'd tell you about it.'
+
+'It's rather an undertaking,' said Mr. Upton musingly, 'but we might do
+something for them. When are they to be here?'
+
+'In two or three days, the corporal said.'
+
+'I think I might manage it. I will go and see Colonel Graham, and find
+out if he will help.'
+
+'I knew you would be able to do it,' said Teddy, beaming all over; 'and
+p'raps, sir, you could tell some of them how to enlist, like you did me.
+The corporal said I ought to try to be a recruiting sergeant for my
+Captain, but they wouldn't listen to me, I am sure. I'm going to try to
+enlist Nancy. I haven't tried half hard enough. But she says she'll only
+be a sailor for Jesus, not a soldier. Can she be that, sir?'
+
+Mr. Upton smiled. 'Yes, I think she can. Sailors have to keep watch, and
+learn their drill, and take orders, and fight under their captain, just
+like soldiers.'
+
+And then Teddy went home and electrified his mother by telling her, with
+an air of great importance, 'Mr. Upton and I are going to give the
+soldiers a tea-party when they come.'
+
+The days passed; Mr. Upton was as good as his word. A large tea was
+provided in the village schoolroom, Colonel and Mrs. Graham taking a
+hearty interest in it; and when the soldiers came in one hot, dusty
+afternoon, everything was ready for them.
+
+Teddy and others of the village children crowded round the Hare and
+Hounds when they arrived, and Nancy was foremost of the crowd.
+
+'I don't think much of soldiers,' she said, her nose tilted up in
+disdain. 'They're very dirty men, and covered with dust, and they've no
+band, nor flags flying, nor nothing.'
+
+If Teddy was disappointed in the look of his heroes, he did not say so;
+but Sam remarked, 'I expect they've left the band and the flags in the
+town; these are only the lot that they can't put up there.'
+
+Later in the afternoon Teddy made his way to the old elm outside the Hare
+and Hounds, where several of the men were resting on the wooden benches,
+some with pots of beer, and round whom some of the admiring villagers had
+made a little circle.
+
+He pushed his way in with his accustomed fearlessness.
+
+'Please, is Mr. Tim Stokes here?'
+
+The soldiers laughed, and bandied a few jokes on the comrade alluded to.
+
+'What do you want with him, youngster?'
+
+'I want to speak to him.'
+
+'I guess you'll find him under one of the tables in the tap-room; old
+Bouncer is pretty dry after a march like we've had to-day.'
+
+There was a roar of laughter at this, but Teddy did not understand the
+joke.
+
+'I mustn't go inside the Hare and Hounds,' he said; 'I promised mother I
+never would. Will you fetch him out for me?'
+
+And turning to a good-natured-looking young fellow, Teddy put his hand
+coaxingly on his arm. The soldier looked into the boy's fair face with a
+laugh and then a sigh, and rising to his feet said, 'All right, little
+chap, I'll fetch him out to you.'
+
+He was gone some time, and Teddy improved his opportunity by making
+friends with those around him; it was not long before he had acquainted
+them with the fact of his being a soldier's son, and from that he drifted
+into telling the story of 'Father's button!' There was vociferous
+applause when he had finished.
+
+'Here, youngster,' said one of the older men, holding out his pewter pot
+to him, 'take a drink like a man; you deserve it!'
+
+'No, thank you,' the boy said; 'I never drink beer.'
+
+Then, as an oldish-looking soldier, with a heavy moustache already tinged
+with grey, came up to him, Teddy turned to him in delight.
+
+[Illustration: 'ARE YOU BOUNCER?']
+
+'Are you Bouncer?'
+
+'That's what I'm called.' The man's face was an unhappy one, and he
+seemed to be the butt of his comrades, for they poured forth such a
+volley of good-natured ridicule on his appearance that Teddy looked from
+one to the other in complete mystification.
+
+'Will you come and see my home?' the child asked softly. 'Corporal Saxby
+told me he thought you would like to come.'
+
+The man's face lightened. 'Ay, that I will, if it ain't fur off; my legs
+are that stiff and sore. I don't want much walking.'
+
+'It isn't very far.' Then, as they moved off together, Teddy slipped his
+little hand confidingly into the big one near him, and continued, 'Do you
+know there's going to be a splendid tea for you all in our schoolroom
+to-night--have you heard?'
+
+'Ay; the parson was round an hour ago giving out tickets. There's little
+to be done in a place like this, and we're too tired to tramp into the
+town; so I expect there'll be a tidy few.'
+
+'The corporal came to tea at our house the other night. He's a friend of
+yours, isn't he?'
+
+'The best friend I've got,' was the hearty answer. 'Ay, lad, there's few
+of his sort in the Army; for one that tries to help us on a bit there's
+ten that tries to drag us down!'
+
+'I suppose,' said Teddy dreamily, 'that, after all, the Queen's army
+isn't so nice to be in as the army I belong to? Does your captain help
+you when you're in trouble?'
+
+'He helps us to pack-drill, or C. B., or cells!' replied Tim Stokes with
+grim humour.
+
+This needed to be explained to Teddy, who went on after it was made clear
+to him: 'Ah! my Captain always helps me. Mr. Upton says when I do wicked
+things and get beaten by the enemy, I must call out to my Captain, and He
+will come at once and help me.'
+
+'I reckon I've heard tell of your Captain, then, for that fellow Saxby is
+always dinning it into me; but I can't come to religion nohow--I can't
+make head or tail of it. I tell you, youngster, I've been having an awful
+time lately, and I can't keep to it. I'm certain sure the drink will do
+for me again. I can't keep away from it much longer, and this march'll
+see the end of my teetotal ways, I'm thinking.'
+
+'And won't my Captain help you?'
+
+'I'm not a hand at prayers and psalm-singing.'
+
+'I wish you'd talk to Mr. Upton; he made me enlist a short time ago, and
+I've been ever so much happier since I did it.'
+
+They were walking across the field leading to the farm, and as they came
+to the stile the soldier leant heavily on it. Turning his face full on
+the child, he said determinedly, 'I'm not a-goin' to talk to any Mr.
+Upton or no one about it. I'd as lief hear you as a parson. You mind me
+of a little brother of mine that died ten years ago. "Tim," he said,
+just afore he went, "Tim, will you meet me in heaven?" He was the only
+one I ever loved, and I've lived a dog's life since!'
+
+His eyes were moist with feeling, and for a minute Teddy looked at him
+silently in pitying wonder. Then he said, 'Look here, Bouncer, this is
+what Mr. Upton said to me. He told me Jesus had died for me, and how
+dared I keep from being His soldier when He loved me so? You know that,
+don't you?'
+
+'Ay, so Saxby tells me; but it don't make no difference.'
+
+'No more it didn't to me,' continued the boy eagerly, 'until I went to
+God and enlisted. I did it quite by myself in the wood. You do it too,
+Bouncer--you give yourself to God as His soldier, and He'll take you and
+keep you.'
+
+'I've been too bad; it keeps me wakeful at nights, the very
+thinkin' of it!'
+
+'But won't God forgive you if you ask Him to?'
+
+'Saxby says so; but I don't know. The fact is, a soldier can't be a
+Christian in the Army.'
+
+'I don't believe you want to be one of God's soldiers,' said Teddy in a
+disappointed tone; 'you keep making 'scuses!'
+
+There was silence; then Tim Stokes heaved a heavy sigh.
+
+'I won't come no further, youngster; I ain't in a mind to-day to see
+company, but I'll be at the tea to-night.'
+
+'Oh, Bouncer, do come!' and Teddy's eyes filled with tears. 'You promised
+you would. I do want you to see mother and granny!'
+
+But Tim wheeled round and strode off with something like a sob in his
+throat. Teddy had little idea of the mighty conflict in his breast. The
+child's words had awakened many memories, and Tim was at that stage now
+when the powers of good and of evil were contending for his soul.
+
+'He don't believe I want it, for I keep making excuses!' muttered the
+poor man. 'Ay, I do; but I haven't got over the longing to be different.
+I'd cut off my right hand, I do believe, if I could be as Saxby is. I
+can't bring myself up to the point; that's it!'
+
+Meanwhile, poor little Teddy crept indoors with a sad face, to announce
+to his mother the failure of his mission.
+
+'He was nearly here, mother--just the other side of the hedge
+outside--and yet he turned back!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Uplifted and Cast Down
+
+
+It was a bright, cheery gathering a few hours later. Mr. Upton had
+thrown his whole heart into the scheme, and had been round with his
+tickets to a few outlying inns, where more of the men were billeted, so
+that there were altogether over forty redcoats assembled. Mrs. John and
+two other neighbours were in charge of the tea and coffee, and Teddy and
+Nancy, with one or two other children, as a special favour, were allowed
+to help to wait on the guests. The tables were decorated with flowers;
+meat-pies, cold beef and ham sandwiches disappeared in a marvellous
+manner, and the cakes and bread-and-butter with watercress were equally
+appreciated. Towards the end of the meal several ladies came forward and
+sang, and one or two part-songs were also given by some of the guests
+staying at the Hall.
+
+'Now,' said Colonel Graham in his brisk, hearty tones, 'before we have a
+few words from Mr. Upton, I should like to tell you how glad I am to see
+the redcoats about me once more. I know your regiment well, for my own,
+the 10th Hussars, lay with it in Colchester ten years ago. I am sure you
+have all enjoyed your tea, but perhaps you do not know who was the
+instigator of the whole thing. We must thank Mr. Upton for his untiring
+zeal and energy in making arrangements; we must thank the ladies for
+trying to make the evening pleasant by their songs; but we must thank a
+little man here, I am given to understand, for the proposal in the first
+instance.'
+
+And to Teddy's intense surprise the colonel swung him up on the impromptu
+platform, to receive a deafening round of applause.
+
+He made a pretty picture as the light fell on his golden curls and
+sparkling blue eyes; his cheeks were flushed with excitement, but he bore
+himself bravely, and he held his head erect as he faced the crowded room.
+
+'He will speak to you better than I can,' the colonel added, with a
+smile, 'for I'm a poor speaker myself. I'm the old soldier here to-night,
+and my fighting days are past; his are all in the future, and he looks
+forward to wear the red coat with the rest of you. I hope he'll bear as
+brave a part in the Service as his father did before him. Now, my boy,
+have you anything to say?'
+
+'It will turn his head,' murmured Mrs. John to herself; but her mother's
+heart swelled with pride as his clear voice rang out,--
+
+'It wasn't I who thought about the tea, it was Corporal Saxby,' (cheers).
+'I haven't anything to say, unless you'd like me to tell you father's
+story. I've told it once to-day, but you weren't all there. May I, sir?'
+
+'Certainly,' was the colonel's amused reply.
+
+Teddy had never had such an audience before in his life, but he was quite
+equal to the occasion. Fingering his button, he began in his usual
+impetuous fashion. The very eagerness for his father's deed to be
+honoured prevented him from any feelings of self-consciousness, and he
+carried his audience by storm.
+
+The ladies were delighted and touched by it, and Mrs. John quietly wiped
+some tears from her eyes.
+
+And then Mr. Upton got up. His dreamy manner in speaking was absent now,
+and he spoke straightly and forcibly to those in the Queen's service of
+the battle to be waged with sin. Touching on their special difficulties
+and temptations, he told them how absolutely impossible it was for them
+to be, in their own strength, a match for the devil with all the powers
+of evil at his back, and how the same Saviour who died for them, would
+keep them, and lead them on to certain victory, if they would but enlist
+in His service. Nothing could exceed the attention with which he was
+listened to, and the evening ended by their rising to their feet and
+singing 'God Save the Queen.' Then a sergeant rose to propose a vote of
+thanks, cheers were given, and all departed, greatly pleased with their
+evening. Teddy slipped up to Tim Stokes on going out.
+
+'Shall I see you again?' he asked.
+
+'I shall be busy to-morrow; we march out at eight in the morning.'
+
+'Oh, I shall come and see you off.'
+
+Tim lingered, then laying his hand heavily on the boy's fair curls, he
+said, 'God bless you, little chap! I've done it.'
+
+Teddy's eyes lit up at once. 'Have you--really and truly?'
+
+He nodded. 'My heart's full, and I can't speak of it, but I was away near
+the woods there by myself before the tea, and it's all right with me. I
+only wonder I didn't do it before. I wouldn't yield, that's the fact.
+Don't forget to pray for me, youngster.'
+
+And he dashed out after his comrades, as if ashamed to show his emotion.
+
+Teddy called his mother to him when in bed that night.
+
+'Mother, I will be a soldier, I'm certain sure I will; but I'm very glad
+I can be one of God's soldiers without waiting to grow up. And I think I
+shall be a recruiting sergeant for God now; I'm sure He wants lots more
+soldiers, doesn't He?'
+
+'Indeed He does, my boy. Now go to sleep; you have had a very exciting
+day.'
+
+'But the best of all is,' said Teddy sleepily, 'that Bouncer has
+enlisted.'
+
+There was quite a crowd of villagers and children the next morning round
+the Hare and Hounds. The soldiers were drawn up outside, waiting for the
+approach of their regiment from the town to fall in and march on with
+them. Teddy and Nancy were, of course, there; the little girl, in spite
+of her alleged disdain of soldiers, was delighted to be in their
+vicinity. Teddy could not get near his friend Bouncer, but he received a
+friendly nod from him in the distance, and as for Bouncer's face, it was
+like sunshine itself, a marked contrast to the day before. As the band
+was heard approaching, cheers were given to the men now leaving, and a
+tall corporal who had much enjoyed his tea the night before stooped to
+ask of Nancy, who was standing close to him, 'What's the name of that
+curly-headed youngster who got us the tea?'
+
+Nancy looked up at him mischievously: 'The button-boy! That's what I call
+him, and I shan't never call him anything else!'
+
+Then the corporal's voice rang out clear and loud,--
+
+'Three cheers for the little button-boy !' which was taken up
+enthusiastically by the soldiers, and Teddy hardly knew whether he was on
+his head or heels from excitement and delight. But he had to pay a
+penalty for his prominent position. From that day the title of the
+'button-boy' stuck to him, and it became his nickname in the village by
+all who knew him.
+
+On came the regiment, with the colours flying and the band playing in the
+most orthodox style, and Teddy was bitterly disappointed when the warning
+bell of school prevented him from marching along the road with them.
+
+The schoolmaster was very lenient with the boys that morning, or else
+they would have been in dire disgrace, for lessons were imperfectly
+learned and said, and never had he found it so difficult to keep their
+attention.
+
+But if Teddy was inattentive and careless at school, he was doubly
+troublesome at home, and for the next few days his mother's fears were
+realised. The excitement of all that had taken place seemed to have quite
+turned his head for the time. He jumped on Kate Brown's back--the hired
+girl--when she was carrying two pails of milk to the dairy, and the
+contents of both pails were spilt and wasted; he shut up a fighting
+bantam cock and the stable cat into a barn, and left them fighting
+furiously; he locked one of the farm-labourers in a hayloft, and pulled
+away the ladder, so that he was not released for hours, and he proved
+such an imp of mischief in the house that even his mother meditated
+handing him over to his uncle to be whipped.
+
+At last it came to a climax in school. He brought a lot of young frogs
+in a handkerchief, put some of them in the master's desk, and amused
+himself at intervals by slipping the others down the backs of the boys
+seated in front of him. His corner was the most unruly one in the room,
+and whilst waiting for another class to come down he began one of his
+stories in a whisper to a most interested audience.
+
+'I went to see a goblin once that I heard of. He lived in a tub on the
+seashore, and he lived by gobbling up schoolmasters and governesses. He
+used to cut their hair off, scrape them well like a horse-radish, and
+then begin at their toes and gobble them up till he got to their
+heads--their heads he boiled in a saucepan for soup. The boys and girls
+used to bring their masters, when they didn't--'
+
+'Edward Platt!'
+
+Never had the master's voice sounded so stern. The frogs were
+discovered!--and his wrath was not appeased by seeing the cluster
+of heads round Teddy, and catching a few words of the delicious
+story going on.
+
+Teddy started to his feet.
+
+'Who put these frogs here?'
+
+'I did, sir.' The answer was boldly given.
+
+'Come here!'
+
+And amidst the sudden hush that fell on all the boys, Teddy walked up to
+the master's desk with hot cheeks and bent head.
+
+'Edward Platt, for the last three days you have been incorrigible. I
+have kept you in, and given you extra tasks, but neither has had any
+effect. Now I shall have to do what I have never yet done to you. Hold
+out your hand.'
+
+Teddy's head was raised instantly, and holding himself erect he bore
+unflinchingly the three or four sharp strokes with the cane that the
+master thought fit to give him.
+
+'Now,' said the master, 'you can go home. I will dispense with your
+attendance for the rest of this morning.'
+
+Teddy walked out without a word: he felt the disgrace keenly, but it was
+the means of bringing him to himself, and rushing away to a secluded
+corner in a field he flung himself down on the ground and sobbed as if
+his heart would break. Half an hour after his uncle, happening to pass
+through that field, came across him.
+
+'Why, Ted, what be the matter?' he inquired as he lifted him to his feet.
+
+Teddy's tear-stained face and quivering lips touched him so, that he sat
+down on a log of wood near, and drew him between his knees.
+
+'Are you feeling bad--are you hurt?' was the next question; and then
+Teddy looked up, and in a solemn voice asked, 'What does the Queen do
+when her soldiers are beaten instead of getting a victory?'
+
+'I--I'm sure I doan't know. I can't remember the time when we was beaten.
+I reckon she's sorry for them.'
+
+'Doesn't she turn them out of her army?'
+
+'Why, noa!'
+
+'What does God do when His soldiers leave off fighting, and knock under
+to their enemy?'
+
+'I reckon He's sorry too.'
+
+Dimly Jake Platt began to see the drift of the child's questions. Teddy
+shook his curly head mournfully. 'I'm sure He'll have to turn soldiers
+out of His army if they give up fighting, and let the banner drag in the
+dust, and just let the enemy do what they like with them. Why, I've done
+worse than that!'--here he clenched his little fists and raised his voice
+excitedly--'I've gone with the enemy, I've joined Ipse, and that's being
+a deserter, and now I shan't never, never be able to get back again!'
+
+His uncle looked sorely puzzled.
+
+'Why ain't you at school? What have you been a'doin'?'
+
+Teddy told him all in a despairing tone, adding,--
+
+'I can't meet mother--I've been caned, and--and I've disgraced my
+button!'
+
+Here his tears burst out afresh.
+
+'Look here,' said his uncle slowly, 'I won't say but what you've been a
+bad boy--your mother herself has been in sore trouble about you this last
+day or two; but if we gets a fall in the mud it ain't much good stopping
+there; the only thing is to pick ourselves up agen, get ourselves
+cleaned, and then start agen and walk more carefully. Can't you do that?'
+
+'I'm a deserter,' sobbed the boy; 'my Captain won't have me back. I've
+disgraced Him, I've disgraced my banner, I've disgraced my button!'
+
+'Your Captain will pick you up, I'm thinkin', if you ask Him. He'll clean
+you up fust-rate, and set you on your legs agen.'
+
+'Will He?' And hope once more began to dawn in the dim blue eyes.
+
+'Of course He will. I ain't good at verses and such like, but I do
+remember this one--"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
+white as snow." Won't that one fit you?'
+
+Teddy did not answer. He stood looking up wistfully into the blue sky, as
+if unconscious of his uncle's presence, and then he sighed. 'I think I'd
+rather be alone, Uncle Jake.'
+
+Jake left him without a word, and went home to prepare Mrs. John for what
+had happened.'
+
+She was much distressed, but, like a sensible woman, took the right view
+of the case.
+
+'He wanted to be pulled up sharp; my poor boy, is he much hurt?'
+
+The caning was such a minor point of Teddy's grief that Jake confessed to
+knowing nothing about it. Mrs. Platt was inclined to be indignant with
+the schoolmaster.
+
+'Such a tiny little chap as he is, so full of feeling and nerves--he
+hadn't ought to have done it.'
+
+Yet only that morning she herself had almost given him a sound whipping
+for one of his mad pranks!
+
+Shortly after Teddy crept in, and shutting the door behind him, put his
+back against it.
+
+'Mother, granny,' he said, 'I've been an awful boy at school this
+morning, and I'm in disgrace. I've been caned.'
+
+His tone was tragic, then he added slowly, 'But I'm very sorry, and I'm
+sorry I've been so naughty at home, and I'm going to start again, because
+my Captain has forgiven me.'
+
+And then Mrs. John did the wisest thing she could do. She asked no
+questions, but got some warm water and took him off to wash his face and
+hands. She saw the red marks across the little hand, but refrained from
+making much of it; and then, after putting his curly head in order, she
+drew it to her shoulder, and putting her arms round him, she said,--
+
+'My sonny, mother is so glad her little son feels his naughtiness. She
+has been praying much for him to-day. And now tell me all about it.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+In the Clover Field
+
+
+'Please, Mrs. Platt, can I see Teddy?'
+
+'I think he is out in the clover field. Don't you be romping round with
+him now, for he's taken his Sunday book out, and is as quiet as can be.'
+
+It was Nancy who was standing at the farmhouse door one lovely Sunday
+evening. Old Mrs. Platt was the only one at home, and she motioned with
+her hand where her little grandson would be found.
+
+Nancy discovered him a few minutes later, lying full length in the
+sweet-scented clover, an open book before him. When he raised his face to
+hers, it wore his most angelic look.
+
+'Hulloo! what have you come here for?' he asked.
+
+'To talk to you,' and, without more ado, Nancy squatted down beside him.
+'What are you doing?' she went on; 'and what's your Sunday book?'
+
+'It's the _Pilgrim's Progress_. I love it; don't you? I haven't been
+reading it though for a long time. I've been having a beautiful make-up.'
+
+'Tell me,' and Nancy's tone was eager.
+
+Teddy looked away to the purple hills in the distance, and beyond and
+above them to the soft evening sky, with its delicate fleecy clouds
+flitting by, and taking every imaginable form and shape as they did so.
+
+The dreamy, far-away look came into his eyes as he said slowly,--
+
+'It's a Sunday make-believe, quite one to myself, and I've never told it
+to any one. I can only tell it to myself out of doors, when it's still
+and quiet, and then I feel sometimes it's quite real!'
+
+'Do tell me,' pleaded Nancy coaxingly.
+
+'Well, it's getting to heaven--after I'm got there, you know.'
+
+Nancy's eyes grew big with awe.
+
+'Shall I tell you how I begin it?'
+
+She nodded, and Teddy, turning over on his side, brought forth another
+book--a New Testament.
+
+Turning to an open page he began to read with great emphasis,--
+
+'"And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and
+showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven
+from God."'
+
+'That's the Bible,' said Nancy.
+
+'Yes; now listen. I'm lying here in this field; it's very, very still. I
+hear a little rustle behind. I don't look round, and then, flash! comes a
+beautiful white angel. Now he's standing in front of me.'
+
+'What's he like?'
+
+'He's dressed in white shiny stuff, and he has very white feathery
+wings. His face is smiling. He has eyes like mother's, and hair like
+Sally White's.'
+
+'Flaxen, mother says it is,' put in Nancy.
+
+'Yes; he stands quite still. Hush! hear him!--"Teddy, I've come to fetch
+you to heaven." And then I stand up. I listen hard, but I don't say
+anything. He says, "You haven't been altogether a good soldier, but the
+Captain says He wants you. Come along." Then I get up and sit myself
+between his wings, and put my arms round his neck, and he begins to go
+up. I see mother, and granny, and Uncle Jake, and I wave my hand to
+them, and mother throws a kiss at me and calls out, "Give my love to
+father," and away we go, over our fields and across the high road, and
+over Farmer Green's fields, and then we fly right to the top of that
+mountain over there!'
+
+'Do let me come, too!' said Nancy. 'I want to be on the angel's back
+with you.'
+
+'P'raps you can follow behind on another angel; I want mine all to
+myself. We get up to the top of the mountain, then I stand down on
+the ground.'
+
+'And me, too!' put in Nancy.
+
+'You mustn't keep stopping me; I can't feel it if you do. I stand
+there, and I think at first I can't see nothing but a lot of little soft
+clouds, one above the other, just like those over there; but the angel
+says, "Put your foot on one of them, and then on the next one--they're
+the steps to heaven!"'
+
+'Oh!' gasped Nancy, following it with keen reality; 'you'll tumble!'
+
+'I don't; it's like putting your foot in cotton wool. I go up--I have to
+go quite by myself, but the angel comes behind, to see I don't fall. And
+then he says, "Look up; don't you see the gates?" And then I look, and I
+see them--shining gold gates, very big, and covered with jewels like Mrs.
+Graham wears on her fingers. I go up and up, and then I'm there.'
+
+'Is that all?'
+
+'Why, that's just the beginning. I'm only outside. The gates are shut,
+but when they see me coming, two more angels come and swing them wide
+open, and I'm feeling rather frightened, but I walk in. There's a long
+wide street made like the gates, and I walk very carefully, for fear of
+slipping down, then I see a lot of angels coming along with trumpets, and
+then they go first and begin to play like the soldiers' band. I march on
+to a very, very, very big door, and there on the steps leading up stands
+my Captain.'
+
+Teddy paused. 'I can't tell you what He's like, but I feel what He's
+like myself. Such a loving, kind face, and He puts His hand on my head
+and says, "Well done, Teddy!" And then I take hold of His hand, and I
+think I cry.'
+
+Matter-of-fact Nancy sees with surprise that Teddy's eyes are filling
+with tears at the thought.
+
+He went on softly, 'I think He takes me up in His arms then, because I'm
+very tired, and He carries me into the most beautiful garden you ever saw
+in your life, and He takes me to father, who is waiting there.'
+
+'Tell me what the garden's like.'
+
+Teddy does not speak; he is full of the meeting with his father, and
+Nancy waits a little impatiently.
+
+'The garden is lovely,' he said at last, drawing in a breath of delight
+at the thought. 'It's always sunny and warm, the grass is very soft and
+green, and there's every flower in the world all bunched up together. The
+seats are made of roses, and if you want to go to sleep, the pillows are
+made up of violets; there's a beautiful river, and trees full of apples
+and oranges, and plums and pears; the banks are red--they're made of
+strawberries.'
+
+'Oh,' gasped Nancy, 'how lovely!'
+
+'There are summer-houses, and little white boats to row on the river, and
+gold harps hanging up on the trees; and then I think, I hope, there are
+lots of dogs running about, and then you can ride all day on lions, and
+tigers, and bears, and they won't bite you, but lick your hands.'
+
+'Go on. What else?'
+
+'Then we stand up and sing hymns when my Captain comes by, and we
+play on the harps, and blow the trumpets as much as ever we like. I
+think my Captain sometimes comes and sits down and talks to us and
+tells us stories.'
+
+There was silence; then Nancy said, 'Is that all?'
+
+'That's enough for you,' said Teddy, a little condescendingly. 'I think
+and make believe a lot more.'
+
+'I want to go to heaven,' Nancy said thoughtfully.
+
+Then Teddy came back to earth.
+
+'Have you enlisted yet?' he asked.
+
+'I'm not going to be a soldier,' said Nancy quickly.
+
+'Well, you'll never get to heaven if you don't fight for our Captain now.
+He won't let you inside the gates unless you belong to Him. Girls can
+fight just as much as boys.'
+
+'Of course they can. I can fight as well as you, button-boy!'
+
+'Why don't you fight your enemy, then?'
+
+'What enemy?'
+
+'My enemy is called Ipse. He's a dreadful trouble to me. You've got
+yours--the thing inside you that makes you want to do naughty things;
+you've got to fight it, and do the good things instead. I've had two
+fights with Ipse to-day.'
+
+'Have you? Do tell me!'
+
+'You mustn't tell any one, then. It was in church this morning. There was
+an old woman in front of me, and she'd untied her bonnet, and the ribbons
+fell over in our pew. She went fast asleep in the sermon, and nodded her
+head back till it almost tumbled off her head, and Ipse thought if I
+would put out my hand and just give a tiny, weeny pull at the ribbon, it
+would come right off!'
+
+Nancy clapped her hands. 'Why didn't you? What fun!'
+
+'I wanted to let Ipse have his way dreadful, but I remembered I must
+fight him, and I did. I asked my Captain to help me, and then I put both
+my hands in my pockets, and screwed up my eyes tight. But I was glad when
+she woke up and tied her bonnet on again.'
+
+'That was much gooder than I could have been. What's the other
+fight you had?'
+
+'Uncle Jake brought some fresh honey from the hives, and he put it on a
+plate in the window in the kitchen. He said when he went out of the room,
+"Don't touch that, Teddy," as I was waiting for mother to come to church
+with me, and I went up and looked at it. Ipse said to me, "Just put one
+finger in it." And I had to fight him very hard over that, but I ran away
+out of the room.'
+
+'And do you always fight him hard?'
+
+'No; I often forget till it's too late. Mother said I must ask my Captain
+to make me remember. I do ask Him a lot to help me.'
+
+'I don't think I like that sort of fighting.'
+
+'Nancy, I wish you'd give yourself to God as His soldier.' Teddy turned
+round earnestly as he spoke.
+
+'I think,' said Nancy slowly, 'I like to be naughty best.' Then she
+added, with quick change of tone, 'My father is coming home soon, and
+he'll come to see us here. Then you'll see what a grand sailor he is. He
+is much grander than your father was.'
+
+'My father was an officer,' said Teddy proudly.
+
+'So's my father; he is a first-class petty officer'; and Nancy brought
+out the words slowly and with much emphasis.
+
+'My father was a non-commissioned officer,' said Teddy, determining not
+to be beaten; 'he was a full sergeant.'
+
+'My father gives orders to all the sailors, and they have to do what he
+tells them.'
+
+'So did my father, and he led the soldiers through a battle.'
+
+'My father will fight in twenty battles before he dies, and yours only
+fought in one.'
+
+'My father is in heaven, and that's the grandest place to be in.'
+
+Coming to this climax was too much for Nancy, and the thoughts of
+that place of which they had been having so much talk subdued their
+rising ire.
+
+Teddy said reproachfully, after a minute's silence, 'Ipse was nearly
+getting angry with you then. You're such a dreadful girl for making me
+quarrel with you.'
+
+'You won't let me say my father is as good as yours,' protested Nancy.
+
+'He isn't better. Yes--don't get angry, Nancy; let's say they're just
+the same.'
+
+And with this admission Nancy was for the time pacified.
+
+Before they parted she looked at her little companion with solemn eyes.
+
+'I won't promise, but I'll think about belonging to the Captain. I should
+like to go to heaven.'
+
+It was one day soon after this that Teddy was straying over the fields in
+his happy, careless fashion; fond as he was of games with the village
+boys, often there were times when he liked his own society best, and he
+wandered on talking to himself, and gathering grass and wild-flowers as
+he went. His quick eyes soon noted some sheep making their way through a
+gap in the hedge, and from thence they were going through an open gate
+into the high road.
+
+'Those are Farmer Green's sheep,' quoth he to himself. 'I'm glad of
+it--horrid old man he is! No, Ipse, be quiet; that isn't the way to
+think of him. I'll go and drive them back again!'
+
+And he trotted off with this intention; but it is much more difficult to
+get sheep into their rightful place than out of it, and this Teddy found
+to his cost. His face was hot and red, his voice hoarse with shouting,
+and then, to his consternation, Farmer Green appeared on the scene.
+
+'You young vagabond,' he shouted, springing towards him, a thick stick in
+hand, 'leave my sheep alone! How dare you come on my premises? You're
+always after some fresh trick or other.'
+
+Teddy stood still till he came up to him, then looked up frankly at him.
+
+'Indeed, sir, I was trying to drive them back through their hole again.
+Look, that's where they broke through.'
+
+'A likely story! Much more probable you made the hole yourself.'
+
+Teddy's blood rushed into his face. 'I never tell a lie!' he cried, 'and
+you're a--'
+
+He stopped, and hung his head in shame at the word that almost
+slipped from him.
+
+Jonathan Green looked curiously at him.
+
+'Now may I ask what the end of that speech was going to be?' he
+said grimly.
+
+Teddy looked up. 'Ipse was going to say you was a liar yourself, but I
+just stopped him in time.'
+
+'I shall believe you have a bee in your bonnet, as some folks say,' said
+the farmer; 'pray, if the sheep came out of their proper field, what
+business was that of yours?'
+
+'I wanted to be good to you. I'm sorry I tied you up that day, dreadful
+sorry. And I've got to love you, so I thought it would be a good plan to
+send your sheep back again.'
+
+'You've got to love me!' repeated the farmer, opening his eyes in mock
+surprise; 'and when did I ask for any of your love, young fellow?'
+
+'I don't suppose you want me to,' observed Teddy cheerfully, as he saw
+that the stick, instead of being brandished over his head, was now safely
+resting on the ground, 'but I've got to do it, you see, because my banner
+I'm holding for my Captain is Love, and I must love everybody.'
+
+The farmer did not answer. Teddy continued earnestly,--
+
+'Do you think you could manage to forgive me, and let us shake hands? It
+would make it easier for me to love you if you could.'
+
+There was such honesty of purpose in the blue eyes raised to his, such
+wistful curves to the sensitive little lips, that Jonathan Green for the
+first time felt the thrall of the child's power.
+
+'Come into the house with me,' he said, 'and I'll see what the missus has
+to say to you.'
+
+Teddy followed him without the slightest misgiving, and he was led into
+the farmhouse kitchen, where Mrs. Green sat knitting over the fire, and
+one of her daughters was laying the cloth for tea.
+
+'Mary Ann, here's the scamp of the village come to see you; keep him here
+till I come back. I'm after some stray sheep'; and shutting the door with
+a bang the farmer disappeared.
+
+Teddy shook hands with the old lady and the young one, and then seated
+himself in the big chair opposite Mrs. Green.
+
+'What have you been doing?' the latter inquired; 'how is it your mother
+can't keep you out of mischief?'
+
+'I haven't been in mischief, really I haven't'; and poor Teddy felt the
+truth of the saying, 'Give a dog a bad name, and hang him.'
+
+He tried to tell his story, and then when that did not seem to be
+understood, he deftly changed the subject.
+
+'What does Farmer Green like best in the world?' he asked.
+
+This astonishing question struck Mrs. Green dumb, but her daughter
+Natty laughed.
+
+'Gooseberry pudding!' she said. 'Now then, what's the next question?
+
+But Teddy was silent, and not another word did he say till the farmer
+came in again.
+
+'This youngster is on the tack of reforming himself, Mary Ann,' said
+Jonathan, sitting down in the chair that Teddy immediately vacated upon
+his entrance; 'do you believe it?'
+
+'I have no faith in boys,' said Mrs. Green, with a shake of her head,
+'they're all alike, and are always taking you unawares!'
+
+'You hear what the missus says; you won't get no help from that quarter.
+But I'll give you a chance; would you like to stop to tea with us?'
+
+Teddy smiled. 'Thank you, sir, but mother will expect me home to tea; may
+I go now? And do you forgive me for what I did the other day?'
+
+Farmer Green stretched out a hard horny hand, and took the boy's small
+one. 'Here's my hand on't!' he said with his grim smile. 'I may be a fool
+for believing you, but if you're sorry for the past, I won't be the one
+to rake it up.'
+
+Teddy's upward look was so full of innocence that he received a clap on
+the shoulder.
+
+'Run along; you've made your peace with me.'
+
+And speeding away Teddy whispered to himself,--
+
+'I shall ask mother to make it, and I shall pick the gooseberries myself,
+and then he'll know I love him!'
+
+Farmer Green was much bewildered a few days after at receiving a parcel
+which was left at his house by some boys on their way back from school;
+he was still more puzzled when upon opening it, it proved to be a
+gooseberry pudding in a basin, with a piece of paper attached to it, and
+these words in very shaky writing, 'I send you my love.--Teddy.'
+
+But his daughter was able to enlighten him, and they had a hearty laugh
+over Teddy's mode of confirming the treaty of friendship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Lost
+
+
+Our little soldier had his ups and downs, but on the whole he was
+making steady progress, and his mother was thankful to see his
+increased thoughtfulness and gentleness. He was not less merry and
+joyous, he was still the leader of the village sports, but he was
+learning how to control his mischievous propensities and to restrain
+his hasty words and actions. Nancy was a great trial to him sometimes,
+and yet, though the two were ceaselessly involved in arguments and
+differences, they could not keep apart for long. Nancy's father
+arrived, and Teddy had the privilege of being invited to tea, and of
+hearing the most wonderful yarns from the big brown-bearded man, who,
+though outwardly rough in voice and manner, had a very soft corner in
+his heart for his little daughter.
+
+Teddy listened and admired, and satisfied Nancy by his evident
+appreciation of the sea stories; but when he reached home, and was asked
+about his visit, he said emphatically,--
+
+'Nancy's father is very nice, but he's nothing like the picture I've got
+of father, with his red coat and sash and sword, and his voice is so
+gruff and hoarse, and he shouts so loud, and I shall never, never think
+sailors are better than soldiers!'
+
+It was after Nancy's father had left her, and when the bright summer days
+were beginning to close, that one afternoon Teddy and Nancy were fishing
+together. At least that was their intention, but any one seeing them
+sitting on the low stone bridge over the river, with their lines dangling
+carelessly in the water, and their merry laughter and voices ringing out
+continually, would not be surprised if their fishing did not meet with
+success. At last they clambered down and wandered along the tow-path, and
+then suddenly Nancy drew Teddy's attention to his button.
+
+'Why, it's nearly coming off; you'll lose it!' she cried.
+
+'I told mother it was getting loose yesterday. She says she is always
+sewing it on. I think I'll take it right off and put it in my pocket.
+Whatever should I do if I was to lose it?'
+
+He was jerking at it as he spoke, and it slipped from his grasp and
+rolled away on the path. It was too great a temptation for Nancy. Like
+lightning she was after it, and a moment after stood upright and
+exultant, with the button clenched tightly in her little hand.
+
+'Give it to me at once!' demanded Teddy, quivering all over with
+excitement.
+
+Nancy's brown eyes sparkled with mischief.
+
+'Aha! little button-boy, I've got it at last, and I shall take it home
+and have it sewed on _my_ jacket.'
+
+'I shall fight you,' cried Teddy, 'if you don't give it up at once!
+It isn't yours. You would be a thief if you kept it. Give it to me
+this minute!'
+
+'Shall I throw it into the river?' questioned the saucy little maiden.
+
+Teddy darted forward, and then began a tussle. He tried to wrench her
+hands apart, and she exerted all her strength to keep them closed.
+Suddenly, with a triumphant cry from Teddy, as Nancy's fingers were
+beginning to yield, the button was liberated with such force that it
+flew violently out, and splash into the river it went! Nancy gave a cry,
+but without a word or sound Teddy plunged in head foremost after it. It
+was done without a thought. He was a good swimmer, and for a minute
+Nancy watched him in breathless silence. But when his little head rose
+out of the water he seemed half stupefied, and cried out in a weak
+voice, 'Help! I'm drowning!' then sank again. Nancy set up a shout then
+of frantic agony, and a carter coming over the bridge fortunately heard
+her, and came to the rescue, not a moment too soon. He threw off his
+coat and heavy boots, and plunged in just as Teddy's curly head rose for
+the third and last time. It did not take long to bring him to shore, but
+he lay in the carter's arms limp and lifeless, and Nancy burst into an
+agony of tears.
+
+'He's dead! he's dead, and I've killed him!' she cried.
+
+The carter wasted no time in trying to restore animation to the little
+frame, but all his efforts were unavailing, and at last he said, 'I'll
+put him in my cart, and drive as fast as I can to the doctor's. It isn't
+more than a mile off, if so be that he's at home. You go home and fetch
+his mother as fast as you can.'
+
+Nancy raced off, sobbing as she went, and she was in such a state of
+excitement that when at length she burst open the farmhouse door she
+seemed to have lost her speech.
+
+Mrs. John saw her face, and started forwards. 'It's Teddy!' she cried;
+'what has happened?'
+
+'He's at--he's going to the doctor's dead!' she gasped, then fell
+breathless to the floor. Without a word Mrs. John snatched up a shawl,
+and with white, set face, and lips moving in agonised prayer, she flew
+along the road to the doctor's. She was shown into the room where the
+doctor was hard at work; but Teddy lay like a waxen image, with the
+sweetest smile on his lips, his fair curls clustering round his brow, and
+only an ugly bump amongst the curls told the reason of his sinking under
+the water again so suddenly.
+
+In breathless silence the mother stood and watched. 'Don't give him up,
+doctor!' she cried, as at last the doctor straightened himself and
+paused, looking at the mother sorrowfully. He shook his head, but set to
+work again, trying artificial respiration, and leaving no effort untried
+to bring back the life that had apparently departed.
+
+And then there came the moment when his efforts met with success, for
+placing his hand against the little heart he felt a feeble throb. He
+redoubled his efforts; the breath began to appear, a faint colour tinged
+the blue lips, and at last the heavy eyelids raised, and a faint voice
+said, 'Mother!'
+
+Mrs. John sank on her knees. 'Thank God!' was all she said, and then
+she fainted.
+
+Much later in the evening Teddy was placed in his own little bed at home;
+but though alive, his condition was most critical, and he lay in a heavy
+stupor, from which it seemed impossible to rouse him. The doctor said he
+must have struck his head against a stone when first he dived into the
+river, and this had produced concussion of the brain. Nancy had been
+taken home before he came, but the news was brought to her that he was
+still alive, though in great danger, and that was a great comfort to her
+poor little sorrowful soul.
+
+For many days he lay between life and death. The inquiries after him
+from every one of his schoolfellows, the Hall, and the different farms
+and places round, told his mother how much her little son had been
+beloved. And when on the following Sunday Mr. Upton gave out, in a
+faltering voice, 'The prayers of this congregation are desired for
+Edward Platt, who is very dangerously ill,' there was not a dry eye in
+the church, and one or two audible sobs came from the boys' seats in
+the gallery.
+
+Mrs. John never left her boy's bedside--night and day she was by him, and
+many wondered at her calm peacefulness. After the first great shock, she
+had been able to hand over her child into her Father's loving hands, and
+rest content with the result; and so she was able, in perhaps the most
+anxious time of her life, to look up and say, 'Father, not my will, but
+Thine be done.'
+
+The days slowly passed, and still no change for the better. The doctor
+came and went with his grave, impenetrable face, and Teddy was still
+unconscious. Then doubts began to rise in his mother's heart as to
+whether his reason would ever come back, and she stopped the doctor as he
+was leaving one morning to ask him the question,--
+
+'If he lives, doctor, will he be an idiot?--my brave, bonny boy! Oh, I
+would rather have death for him than that!' And the doctor could only
+give her the meagre consolation, 'He may recover yet. I have seen worse
+cases than this pull through, and be as bright as ever they were.'
+
+And then, one afternoon, when the setting sun was flooding the room with
+a golden glory, the little head turned on the pillow. 'Mother!'
+
+The sound of that word, not uttered since she had seen him in the
+doctor's house that first terrible day, was like the sweetest music in
+her ear. Stooping over him she met the clear conscious gaze of the
+blue eyes.
+
+'So tired, mother! Put your hand under my cheek. Good-night.'
+
+The eyelids closed, and the limbs relaxed in healthy sleep. The
+mother sat down, and though her arm became stiff and weary, not a
+muscle of it moved.
+
+The doctor came in just before he woke.
+
+'He has spoken; he knew me,' she said; and the doctor nodded and smiled.
+And then a minute after the boy raised his head.
+
+'Where am I, mother?' he asked feebly.
+
+'In bed, darling. You've been ill.'
+
+'Where's my button?'
+
+'He'll do,' said the doctor contentedly; 'keep him quiet, and feed him
+up.'
+
+And the glad news went round the village that Teddy was getting better.
+
+It was a bright day for the farm when Teddy was brought down in a blanket
+and put in the big easy-chair by the fire. His little face and hands
+looked very fragile, with the blue veins standing out clearly under the
+transparent white skin, but his large eyes shone with light and gladness.
+His mother made him comfortable, then left him in his grandmother's
+charge for a short time. Old Mrs. Platt had had her share of suffering
+during those sad days; her heart was wrapped up in the boy, and perhaps
+the greatest trial of all was to stand aloof, and perform her daily work
+downstairs, whilst her daughter-in-law had the sole charge of him.
+
+She came across to the chair now, and kneeling down in front of it, said,
+with tears in her eyes, as she took his two little hands into hers,
+'Granny has sadly missed her pickle all this while.'
+
+And then Teddy put his little arms round her neck and hugged her close,
+crushing her cap in the most reckless fashion as he did so.
+
+'I'm getting better every day, granny, and I love you ever so!'
+
+When Mrs. Platt released herself, he went on more soberly, 'I feel very
+tipsy on my legs. I asked mother to let me walk just now, but I
+couldn't manage very well. I don't think I shall be able to run fast
+for a year, shall I?'
+
+'Oh, we'll see you about long before that, please God!'
+
+'And, granny, you know about my sorrow?'
+
+The blue eyes looked wistful at the thought.
+
+'Yes, laddie; but don't think of that now.'
+
+'I told mother I didn't want ever to get well when I first talked about
+it. I felt I couldn't live without my button, but she told me that was
+wrong; she said it wasn't being a good soldier to wish to die directly
+trouble came, and that if I bore my sorrow well God would be pleased. Do
+you think I'm bearing it well, granny?'
+
+'Yes, yes,' Mrs. Platt said soothingly. 'Look at those lovely flowers
+and grapes that Mrs. Graham sent to you this morning. Wasn't that
+kind of her?'
+
+'I don't never forget it,' pursued Teddy, refusing to have the subject
+changed; 'but I thought this morning that God could give it to me again,
+and so I'm going to ask Him every day till it comes; and do you know,
+granny, I think He'll give it to me, only mother says I must be patient.'
+
+Presently he asked, 'Could I see Nancy, one day soon?'
+
+'She comes, on her way to school, every day to ask how you are. Poor
+little maid! she's taken on dreadful about your illness, and wouldn't eat
+her food when you were so ill. Her mother got quite anxious about her.
+We'll send for her in a day or two, if you keep well.' And two days
+after Nancy appeared. She came up to the big chair very shyly, and looked
+with awe upon Teddy's white, wasted face; then she cried impulsively,--
+
+'Oh, button-boy, will you ever, ever forgive me? If you had died, I
+should have killed you!'
+
+'No, you wouldn't,' said Teddy, putting up his face and kissing her. 'I
+was just as naughty; I shouldn't have tried to fight with you.'
+
+'I go to the river every day,' Nancy went on sorrowfully, 'and Farmer
+Green brought a big net one day and dragged up a lot of stones and
+old tin pans, but the button wasn't there. I hope it will be washed
+ashore one day, and so I look along the banks, but I haven't seen a
+sign of it yet!'
+
+'I'm asking God to give it back to me every day,' said Teddy, with a
+little decided nod, 'and I think He'll do it. You ask Him too, Nancy, and
+perhaps He'll do it quicker.'
+
+'I've asked God every day to make you better, and I promised Him if He
+would do it I would be the Captain's soldier. Yes, I did, and I said I
+would give up being a sailor, and be just a soldier, like you are.'
+
+Nancy made this statement with great solemnity, and Teddy beamed
+with delight.
+
+'And are you really enlisted?'
+
+'I don't quite know, but I'm trying to be good, and I ask Jesus to help
+me every day.'
+
+Then there was silence. Nancy sat down on the rug, and took the large
+tabby cat on her lap.
+
+'Did you think you was going to die?' she asked presently.
+
+'I didn't think nothing at all till I woke up, and saw mother crying over
+me, and then I felt dreadful tired and ill. I asked her one day where she
+would bury me, for I was sure I was much too ill to get better, and
+she--well, she smiled, and said God was making me stronger every day. I
+didn't feel I was better a bit.'
+
+'Would you like to have died and gone to heaven?'
+
+'Yes,' Teddy answered promptly, 'of course I should. Wouldn't you?'
+
+Nancy shook her head. 'I might if I was quite sure the angel would carry
+me safely all the way without dropping me, or leaving me in the clouds
+before we got there; but I think I like to live here best. Besides, I
+don't think I'm good enough to go to heaven yet.'
+
+'I don't think it's being good gets us to heaven. Jesus died to let us,
+you know, like the hymn says,--
+
+"Jesus loves me! He who died
+ Heaven's gate to open wide;
+ He will wash away my sin,
+ Let His little child come in."
+
+Have you asked Him to forgive you, Nancy?'
+
+Nancy nodded. 'Yes, when you was so ill. I felt I had been so wicked that
+God was punishing me.'
+
+Here, reverting to more earthly topics, Nancy held up the cat arrayed in
+her sailor hat and jacket.
+
+'Look, this is Jack Tar! Doesn't she make a jolly sailor?'
+
+A gleeful, hearty peal of laughter came from Teddy, and was heard in the
+adjoining room by his grandmother with comfort. She called Mrs. John.
+
+'Hear that, now! Why, he's getting quite himself again; it does him good
+to have a child to talk to. She must come again.'
+
+And this Nancy did, and the roses began to come back to Teddy's cheeks,
+and then others of his playfellows were allowed to come and see him.
+
+Certainly no little invalid could have received greater attention than he
+did during that time of convalescence. Every day small offerings were
+presented at the door by the village children, and very diverse were the
+gifts. Sometimes a bunch of wild-flowers, sometimes birds' eggs, marbles,
+boxes of chalk, a packet of toffee or barley-sugar, a currant bun, a tin
+trumpet, a whistle, a jam tart, a penny pistol, and so on, till his
+mother declared she would have to stop taking them in, as they were
+getting such an accumulation of them.
+
+'And how is my little fellow-soldier?' asked Mr. Upton, as he came in one
+day for his first visit to the little invalid after being downstairs.
+
+'He'll soon be out of hospital,' responded Teddy brightly.
+
+'And is he still fighting for his Captain?'
+
+'I think, sir, Ipse has been very good while I've been ill.'
+
+'He has been lying low, has he? If I mistake not, you will have a brush
+with him yet before long, so be on the look-out.'
+
+And Teddy found the good rector's words come true. Days came when he
+tried his mother's patience much by his fractiousness and restlessness,
+and he was more often the vanquished than the conqueror.
+
+Even Nancy one day remonstrated with him.
+
+'You're nasty and cross to-day. No one pleases you.'
+
+'I want to get out. I'm tired of this old kitchen.'
+
+'If you can't get out, you can't. Being cross won't take you out.' This
+logic convinced, but did not comfort.
+
+'I expect your Captain won't come near you when you're cross.' And then
+Teddy burst out crying,--
+
+'I'm not a soldier at all. I don't know how to stand fire, and it's all
+Ipse, and I'm too tired to fight him!'
+
+Poor little soldier! One above took note of the physical weakness and
+weariness, and in His tenderness pitied and forgave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Found
+
+
+It was winter time, and Teddy was back at school, full of health and
+spirits, yet, through all his boyish mirth, the loss of his button was
+never forgotten. Daily he prayed for it to be found, and his hope and
+faith in God never failed him.
+
+'Perhaps God will send it to me for a Christmas surprise. Perhaps I shall
+find it in my stocking on Christmas morning,' he used to say to his
+mother; and she told him to pray on.
+
+He had come in from school one cold day in the beginning of December, and
+was watching with keen interest the roasting of an apple suspended from a
+string in front of the fire, when there was a sharp knock at the door,
+and the footman from the Hall appeared.
+
+'The master wants you to let the youngster come up with me now and
+speak to him.'
+
+'What about?' questioned Mrs. John, rather alarmed at this summons, and
+wondering if Teddy had been up to mischief.
+
+'He won't keep him long.' Then, as excited Teddy began pulling on his
+great-coat, he whispered something into his mother's ear, which had the
+effect of completely reassuring her, and bringing a pleased smile about
+her lips. Teddy was delighted to go up to the Hall, and he trotted along
+by the side of the tall young footman, keeping up a brisk conversation
+as he went.
+
+'I shall never be a footman,' he was asserting; 'I couldn't keep my
+legs so stiff. You're always like the soldiers when they stand at
+Attention. Don't you never kick your legs out in the kitchen, or have
+you got stiff knees?'
+
+'I can kick out as much as I like,' responded the young man, in rather an
+offended tone.
+
+'Don't you think it's nicer to be a soldier? Wouldn't you like to be
+one?'
+
+'No; their grub is something shocking, and they live like cattle!'
+
+Teddy would not allow this, and the discussion began to get somewhat
+heated, when their arrival at the house put an end to it.
+
+'I say, just tell me, is the colonel angry?' asked Teddy, as looking into
+the large, brightly lighted hall, he suddenly felt his diminutive size.
+
+'Not he. Wipe your feet, and take your cap off.'
+
+Teddy stepped in upon the soft rugs almost on tiptoe, and the colonel
+himself came out into the hall to meet him. 'Come in, my little man, and
+don't be frightened.'
+
+Teddy held his head erect as he followed the colonel into a bright,
+cheery room, where a group of ladies and gentlemen were round the fire
+enjoying their cup of five o'clock tea.
+
+Mrs. Graham came forward and gave him a kindly greeting.
+
+'This is our would-be soldier,' said Colonel Graham--'the "button-boy,"
+as I hear he is called. Some of you remember his story told in our
+schoolroom to the regiment passing through in the summer, and we weren't
+surprised to hear of his narrow escape from death from trying to regain
+his button. But perhaps you've forgotten all about it, youngster? A
+button isn't worth much sorrow after the first pang of its loss is over.'
+
+Teddy's face was a picture: the blood rushed up to his forehead, his eyes
+flashed, and with clenched hands he said boldly, 'Do you think I could
+ever forget my father's button, sir? I'd rather have it back than
+anything else in the world! And I'm going to get it back, too!'
+
+'But it's at the bottom of the river, isn't it?'
+
+'I don't know where it is, but God does, and I ask Him every day to send
+it back to me. I'm quite sure He will, and I think it will be this
+Christmas.'
+
+The ladies exchanged glances.
+
+'"Fact is stranger than fiction," certainly,' said the colonel. 'Now, my
+boy, come here.'
+
+He was standing on the hearthrug with his back to the fire, and putting
+his hand into his pocket he drew out a small box and placed it in the
+child's hand.
+
+'Open it, and tell me if you recognise the contents.'
+
+Teddy lifted the lid, and then a gasp, and a cry of ecstasy broke from
+him.
+
+'Oh, my button, my own button! Oh, sir!'
+
+And here the tears welled up in the blue eyes, and, utterly regardless
+of the place he was in, he flung himself down on the hearthrug and
+buried his head, face foremost, in his arms. He lay there so still for a
+moment that Mrs. Graham bent forward to touch him, fearing that the
+excitement might be too much for him, but he was only trying to hide his
+emotion from those looking on. In another minute he rose to his feet,
+and with a face perfectly radiant he turned to, the colonel, 'It's
+lovely, sir, it's lovely!'
+
+The colonel had had it set in a little gold framework with blue ribbon
+attached, making it look as much like a medal as possible, and Mrs.
+Graham now came forward and pinned it to his coat.
+
+'Now, my boy, I don't think you will ever guess how it came into our
+possession. The other day I brought home a few fish, and in preparing one
+of these for table our cook discovered your button inside it--I wonder
+the fish had not come to an untimely end before from such an indigestible
+meal! She told us of it, not recognising what a valuable treasure she
+had brought to light, and directly we saw it, we knew it was the
+redoubtable button that has been the means of causing such interest in
+our neighbourhood.'
+
+Teddy listened eagerly. 'No wonder no one couldn't find it!' he said,
+fingering his adornment proudly. 'It's like the fish that brought Peter
+some money once.'
+
+Then the colonel turned to one of his friends.
+
+'Now, major, what do you think of this youngster? Would you like to take
+him as a drummer boy into your regiment?'
+
+The major scanned the boy from head to foot, then answered emphatically,
+'I wouldn't take a boy with a face like that for a good deal!'
+
+'Why not?' asked Mrs. Graham.
+
+'Because it's the ruination of them. I shall never forget a pretty boy we
+had once; he was called the "cherub," and had been a chorister--sang
+divinely. He was only four years in the regiment, and his case was
+brought to me before he was discharged. He came to us an angel, and
+departed a finished young blackguard. He drank, stole, and lied to any
+extent, and was as well versed in vicious sins as any old toper in the
+regiment. When I see a fresh drummer brought in, I wonder how long he
+will keep his innocence, and sometimes wish his friends could see the
+life he is subjected to. I give them a month generally, and then away
+flies their bloom and all their home training.'
+
+'But, Major Tracy, you are giving us a shocking idea of the morals in the
+Service,' said one lady.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders. 'I grant you, on the whole, they are better
+than they were, but the Service is no place for highly strung boys like
+this one. The rougher, harder natures get on best. When they get older,
+and have sense and strength enough to stick to their principles, then let
+them enlist.'
+
+'But I have always heard,' said Mrs. Graham, 'that the drummer boys are
+well looked after now. They have a room to themselves, and the chaplains
+have classes for them.'
+
+'That may be. I would only ask you to watch a boy, as I have, from the
+start, and see what kind of a man he grows into after having spent most
+of his early youth in the Service. There are exceptions, I know, but
+precious few, as far as my experience goes.'
+
+Teddy did not understand this conversation, but he gathered from the
+major's tone that he did not approve of him.
+
+'Do you think I'm too small to be a soldier?' he asked.
+
+The major laughed. 'Don't bother your head about your size,' he said;
+'you'll grow, and there's plenty of time before you.'
+
+'I don't want to be a drummer,' said Teddy earnestly; 'I'd rather wait
+and be a proper soldier--a soldier that fights.'
+
+'A capital decision--stick to it, little chap, and you have my hearty
+approval.'
+
+'You have your father's blood in your veins,' said the colonel, laughing;
+'meanwhile, I suppose you try your hand on the village boys, to content
+your fighting propensities.'
+
+'No,' said Teddy, a grave look coming into his sunny blue eyes. 'I don't
+fight with anybody but Ipse now; he keeps me always busy.'
+
+'Who is Ipse?' asked Mrs. Graham.
+
+'He's my own enemy; Mr. Upton told me about him. You see, I belong to
+God's army. He takes very little soldiers. I've been enlisted for months
+and months, and Ipse is just another part of me--the bad part!'
+
+There was silence on the little company for a minute, then Major Tracy
+said with a laugh, 'What an original little oddity it is!--quite a
+character!'
+
+And then Teddy was dismissed. He flew down the avenue home as fast as he
+could go. Snow was falling, but he heeded it not, and burst into the
+kitchen a little later in a breathless state of excitement.
+
+His mother knew already, so was prepared for his news, but she was not
+prepared for the handsome adornment now on her boy's coat, and his
+grandmother and uncle were equally pleased and gratified at the
+colonel's kindness.
+
+Teddy's prayer of thanksgiving that night touched his mother greatly.
+
+'O God, I do thank You. I knew You would answer me, for You knew how
+dreadful it was to live without my button, and You knew how unhappy
+my heart was about it, though I tried to be brave, and not talk about
+it. Please, do help me to take great care of it, and never let me
+lose it again!'
+
+The next morning before breakfast, Teddy ran off to tell Nancy, and to
+show her the long-lost treasure. She was quite as delighted as he was,
+but said, a few minutes after, 'Button-boy, do you remember telling me
+you couldn't live without your-button? You said you'd pine away and die.'
+
+'Yes, I thought I should; but as soon as I began to pray about it I knew
+it was coming back, and so I got better.'
+
+'Well,' said Nancy with a sigh, 'I won't ever try to get your button
+again; but if you were to die before me, I wonder if you would let me
+have it then? I would take great care of it.'
+
+'I meant it to be buried with me,' said Teddy, considering, 'but I don't
+mind altering my mind about it, and if you promise not to give it to any
+one else, I will let you have it.'
+
+'I promise truly,' vowed Nancy, 'and I told you I wouldn't love you till
+you gave it to me, but I will now, because I'm trying to be good!'
+
+'And we'll always remember that soldiers and sailors are just as good as
+each other--they're quite even!'
+
+'Yes,' nodded Nancy; 'sailors and soldiers are quite even, and my father
+is just as good as your father was!'
+
+Teddy looked a little bit doubtful at this, but wisely refrained from
+making any objection to the assertion; and then they parted, Nancy
+calling out after him,--
+
+'And when you die, and I get the button, I shall wear it as a brooch!'
+
+'Mother,' said Teddy, a few days after this, as she was paying him her
+usual 'good-night' visit, 'it's a very funny thing; but do you know, I
+used to wish for an enemy so much, to fight and carry on with, and now
+I've got one, and have Ipse to fight with, I'm getting rather tired of
+him. Is that wicked? I asked Mr. Upton to-day if I couldn't ever get rid
+of Ipse--I mean when I am grown up, but he said I never should
+altogether, but that I could keep him well under, so that he wouldn't
+trouble me so. He does trouble me a lot now'
+
+'Soldiers must never get tired of fighting, sonny, and you have your
+Captain to help you.'
+
+'Yes; and I suppose when I get bigger and stronger it will be much
+easier, won't it? Mother, do you have any fighting? Have you got an
+enemy like me?'
+
+'Yes, indeed I have, my boy.'
+
+'But you're never beaten, are you? You never do anything wrong!'
+
+'I don't get into mischief, and disobey orders, perhaps,' Mrs. John
+said, smiling; 'but I have lots of difficulties and temptations that
+you know little about, sonny, and I am afraid I very often get beaten
+by the enemy.'
+
+Teddy pondered over this. 'When I get to heaven I shan't have to fight
+with Ipse, shall I?'
+
+'No, darling; there will be no fighting with sin there.'
+
+Teddy smiled. 'Perhaps my Captain will think I've been nearly as brave as
+father if I fight Ipse hard till I die.'
+
+'There is a verse in the Bible that says, "He that ruleth his spirit is
+better than he that taketh a city." Mother would rather have her little
+son fight God's battles than be the bravest soldier in the Queen's army.'
+
+'But,' said Teddy, 'I mean to do both; and now, mother, just before I go
+to sleep, give me father's button to kiss!'
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Teddy's Button, by Amy Le Feuvre
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEDDY'S BUTTON ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10880.txt or 10880.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/8/8/10880/
+
+Produced by Joel Erickson, Michael Ciesielski, Mary Meehan and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+