"Then both boy and soldier will
keep their promises to you."
The Major watched her go below, then said to himself, "She's
right--she's always right. She was right to come north, and bring
him, too. But I am a coward, for I daren't tell her she'll have to
part from him, or from me, some day. He will have to be sent to the
front again; he can't grow up unlearned, untaught, and there are no
schools in our Arctic world, and she must go with him, or stay with
me; but I can't tell her. Yes, I'm a coward." But Major Lysle was
the only person in all the world who would have thought or said so.
"And will you tell me how Sergeant Black won his stripes, mother,
before I go to sleep?" begged Graham.
"Yes, little 'North-West,'" she replied, using the pet name the men
in barracks frequently called the child. "It's just a wee story of
one man fighting it out alone--just alone, single-handed--with no
reinforcements but his own courage, his own self-reliance."
"That's just what father says, isn't it, mother, to just do things
yourself?" asked the boy.
"That's it, dear, and that is what Sergeant Black did. He was only
corporal then, and he was dispatched from headquarters to arrest
some desperate horse thieves who were trying to drive a magnificent
bunch of animals across the boundary line into the United States,
and then sell them.
Pages:
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206