The village children were swarming out of school 1 the next afternoon. The heat and confinement of the crowded schoolroom had not lessened the superabundance of energy and high spirits amongst them. The boys soon congregated on the green, bent on a game of cricket.
"Where's Teddy?"
"Teddy Platt!"
"Young Ted, where has he gone?"
"Fetch Teddy!"
This was the general cry. But Teddy was nowhere to be seen.
"Has he been kept in?" asked one.
"Likely enough. He is up in the clouds today."
"Oh, isn't he just! Why, I offered him half such a huge apple. My! It was a beauty! And his eyes sort of wandered away from it, as if it had been a piece of mud! 'Thanks,' he said, 'I'll have a bite tomorrow not today.'"
"And Teacher was down on him sharp, too," put in another eager voice. "He answered all the arithmetic wrong, and he said forty soldiers made a rood! And Teacher says, 'Is your head good for nothing but soldiers?' And Ted he got as red as fire, and says, 'It's full of them today, Sir,' and Teacher said, `Go down to the bottom of the class until you can empty it of them then, and tell me when you have done it.' And when Ted comes next to me I says, 'Is your button lost, old chap, that you are in such a stew?' And he says, 'No, the button is all right, but I'm thinking 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 favorite 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. It must be like church, and I won't come away until I've done it."
Into the wood he went, but he was hard to satisfy; roaming here and there, peeping around 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 around the marred 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 until it rested likewise against the tree, Teddy prayed aloud, slowly, and with frequent pauses, "0 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 forever 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 colors 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. 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 afterward with a radiant face, and took his share in fielding, bowling, and batting with such a vigor 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 tonight."
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 favorite beehives. Then, noting the disappointed look on the child's face, and recognizing who it was, he added briskly, "Ah! It is Teddy Platt, is it? And so you have done it, have you? Thank God! Yes, I remember all about it. You are 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 Him, 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. 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 around 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 is 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 also 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 anyone 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 custom. It may give us an insight into his busy brain if we listen.
"Goggles might do, or Grubby, or Toad. I want to have some name, else I won't be able to talk to him so well. I wish Mother had helped me. It's very difficult. I can't seem to think of a name quite ugly enough. I expect perhaps Mr. Upton could tell me. I'll wait and ask him. I hope I won'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. I've got to hold up my banner of love over her. I hope she'll like it. She's a horrid stop, 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 declare, 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 around. Not a bit disconcerted was she.
"Aha, it's the silly 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 a good start. 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 its 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 on 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. 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 do I have 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 would rather be shot dead, or drowned 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 until 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. If I couldn't die very quick, I wouldn't eat or drink nothing. I'd go sadly to my grave and lay my head down. 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 until 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'm not 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 around 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. 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. 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?"
"Perhaps 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. I'm one of His soldiers now."
"Does Jesus have any sailors?"
The question was put suddenly, and the answer was given with a slight air of superiority, "No, He has only soldiers."
"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."