Teddy's Button Part 9

Having got his hands free, Teddy stood up bravely and told the story briefly and clearly, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt 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 b.u.t.ton 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!' a.s.serted 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.'