Tim lingered, then laying his hand heavily on the boy's fair curls, he said, 'G.o.d 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 G.o.d's soldiers without waiting to grow up. And I think I shall be a recruiting sergeant for G.o.d 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 b.u.t.ton-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 b.u.t.ton-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 t.i.tle of the 'b.u.t.ton-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 c.o.c.k 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 cla.s.s 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 seash.o.r.e, and he lived by gobbling up schoolmasters and governesses. He used to cut their hair off, sc.r.a.pe 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 cl.u.s.ter 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d 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 b.u.t.ton!'

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 b.u.t.ton!'

'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.'