It was a bright, cheery gathering a few hours later. Mr. Upton had thrown his whole heart into the scheme, and had been around 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 neighbors were in charge of the tea and coffee. Teddy and Nancy, with one or two other children, as a special favor, 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 marvelous manner. The cakes and bread-and-butter with watercress were equally appreciated. Toward the end of the meal several ladies came forward and sang. 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 around me once more. I know your regiment well, for my own, the 10th Hussars, lay with it in Gibraltar 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. 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 tonight, and my fighting days are past; his are all in the future. 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 today, 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 honored prevented him from any feelings of self-consciousness. He carried his audience by storm.
The ladies were delighted and touched by it. Mrs. John quietly wiped some tears from her eyes.
And then Mr. Upton got up. His dreamy manner in speaking was absent now. 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. He told them how the same Savior 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 tomorrow; 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. I can't speak of it, but I was away near the woods there by myself before the tea. 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. 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 around 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 there, of course. 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. 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. 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. I shan't ever 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. 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. It became his nickname in the village by all who knew him.
On came the regiment, with the colors flying and the band playing in the most orthodox style. 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. 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. For the next few days his mother's fears were realized. 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 spilled 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-laborers in a hayloft, and pulled away the ladder, so that he was not released for hours. 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 He put some of them in the master's desk. He 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. While 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. He lived by gobbling up schoolmasters and governesses. He used to cut their hair off, scrape them well like a horse-radish. Then he would begin at their toes and gobble them up until 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! His wrath was not appeased by seeing the cluster of heads around 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. 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 later his uncle, happening to pass through that field, came across him.
"Why, Ted, what is 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 don't know. I can't remember the time when we were beaten. I reckon she's sorry for them." "Doesn't she turn them out of her army?"
"Why, no!"
"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. That's being a deserter. Now I shan't ever, ever be able to get back again!"
His uncle looked sorely puzzled.
"Why aren't you at school? What have you been doing?"
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 that you haven't been a bad boy-your mother herself has been in sore trouble about you this last day or two. But if we get a fall in the mud, it isn't much good stopping there. The only thing is to pick ourselves up again, get ourselves cleaned, and then start again 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 think, if you ask Him. He'll clean you up first-rate, and set you on your legs again."
"Will He?" And hope once more began to dawn in the dim blue eyes.
"Of course He will. I'm not 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 would 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 shouldn't have done it."
Yet only that morning she had almost given him a sound whipping herself 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. I'm in disgrace. I've been caned."
His tone was tragic, then he added slowly, "But I'm very sorry. I'm sorry I was so naughty at home. 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. After putting his curly head in order, she drew it to her shoulder, and putting her arms around him, she said, "My Sonny, Mother is so glad her little son feels his naughtiness. She has been praying much for him today. And now tell me all about it?"