Our Soldier Boy Part 2

"I know," cried Mrs Corporal; "I'll ask the Colonel next time I take him his was.h.i.+ng back."

"You just don't," said Joe; "because if you do he'll say as you mustn't."

"Oh!" sighed Mrs Corporal; "that's just what I'm 'fraid of."

They were very silent as they sat by the camp-fire that night in an orange-grove, with the big stars peeping down at them, and Tom Jones, who took a great interest in what was said, sat and waited for ever so long, and then being tired out with the long day's tramp, lay down to listen, and dropped off fast asleep, just as Joe Beane said thoughtfully:--

"Look here, missus, if I was on'y a private instead of being an officer I should say something, but as I am full corporal, why, I can't."

"Just think you are a private, Joe, and say it," whispered his wife.

"Shall I?" he said slowly.

"Yes, Joe, dear, do. He's such a nice boy."

"Ay, he is, missus."

"And I love him a'ready."

"Well, I won't go so far as love him, 'cause I don't like boys, but I like him because he's such a good, happy-looking little chap, and how anyone as calls himself a man could have--"

"Yes, yes, you've said that before, Joe," whispered his wife pettishly.

"Tell me what you'd say if you warn't a corporal."

"Why, I'd say nothing," said Joe.

"Oh, how can you be so stupid as to go on like that! I thought you'd got something sensible in your head."

"So I have," said Joe gruffly, "on'y you're in such a hurry. I should say nothing to n.o.body, and go on just as if he warn't here."

"Oh, Joe, dear, would you?"

"Yes, that's what I should say. We could manage right enough, and if at last the Colonel should come with: 'Hallo there! What boy's that?'-- why, we could tell him then, and if he said: 'Send him away'--"

"Yes, and what then, Joe?" cried Mrs Corporal excitedly.

"Why then," said Joe, "we should have to obey orders."

"Ah, and he mightn't say that, Joe, as he's such a nice little fellow."

"Course, he mightn't," replied Joe.

"Hah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs Corporal Beane, and she said no more. But at the next halting-place she began to think: and the result of her thinking was that she got hold of an old uniform suit and by working very hard every time the regiment halted she contrived to cut the suit down till it roughly fitted the little invalid, braiding it like the drum and bugle boys', and making a little military cap as well, so that by the time he was able to trot along in the rear of the regiment he did not seem out of place.

"Joe," said Mrs Corporal one morning, "look at him; don't he look splendid? He's our soldier boy now, and I shall call him d.i.c.k."

"All right," said the corporal; "d.i.c.k ain't bad, but you might ha'

called him Joe the second."

CHAPTER THREE.

It was quite six weeks after d.i.c.k had been found, and he was weak still, but that only troubled him by making him feel tired, and at such times there was always a ride ready for him on the top of a pack carried by a mule.

And there he was happy enough, for he was rapidly growing into being the pet of the regiment, and first one of the men brought him fruit, and some one thing and some another; but Mrs Corporal was always pretty close at hand to take care that he was not spoiled or made ill, and Corporal Joe said over and over again to his wife, that it was "ama-a-azin'."

"What's amazing, Joe?" she said one day. "What do you keep saying that for?"

"'Cause it is," he said.

"Yes, but why, Joe?"

"'Cause ever since I found that there boy you've been as proud as a peac.o.c.k with two tails."

"And enough to make me," said Mrs Corporal tartly. "There never was such a boy before. Look at him!" and she pointed to where the little fellow, in full uniform, was perched on a mule-pack, and the baggage guard with fixed bayonets marched close beside.

"Yes," said Joe drily, as he screwed up his face; "I've been a-looking at him a deal. His coatee fits horrid."

"That it don't," said Mrs Corporal; "and it was the best I could do out of such old stuff."

"Well, it weer old," said her husband; "but it's all crinkles and creases, and that boy puzzles me."

"Why? How?"

"'Cause you'd think after he'd seen his people killed and the house burnt about his ears he'd ha' been frightened like; but he don't seem to mind nothing about it, not a bit."

"Ah, it is strange," said Mrs Corporal; "but there couldn't be a braver nor a better little chap."

"That there couldn't," said the Corporal proudly; "but I think I've found out what's the matter with him. That crack on the head made him an idjit."

"For shame, Joe!" cried his wife. "He's as clever and bright a little fellow as ever stepped."

"So he is, missus; but he puzzles me. It's ama-a-azin'."

The boy puzzled Tom Jones the bugler boy too, who whenever he got a chance came alongside of the mule or baggage wagon in the rear, and let the little invalid earn his bugle on condition that he did not try to blow it, and Tom made this an excuse for solemnly asking the same questions over and over again.

"I say, who's your father?"

"Corporal Joe Beane," said the boy promptly; "I say, Tom, mayn't I have a blow now?"

"What? No, of course not. You don't want to send the men at the double up a hill like this."

"Why not? I should like to run too, only I so soon get tired."

"You shall have a blow some day. But I say, who's your mother?"

"Mrs Corporal Joe Beane," was the prompt reply, and the boy drummed the mule's sides to make it go faster, but without effect.