That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures, and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend. —Longfellow.
It was a new experience to be on guard as corporal; and instead of the tedious pacing up and down, to go round the camp at set intervals, posting the reliefs, and then to sleep or lounge in the guard tent. No more sounding out the "All's well!" in proper, or improper, style; but it seemed to Magnus that he never missed hearing it.
But whereas in the old days he used to wish every time he called the hour that the beautiful, serious, and weird cry could reach across the continent, even to his mother's ears, now, on the whole, he was content that it did not.
"If only she could hear it!" he used to think; if only the "All's well!" could cross those weary miles that kept her away. But now, somehow, he did not wish it. Yes, it was all well with the camp, all well with the Post; was it all well with him? Would the words bear a true report as she would understand them?
Cadet Kindred studied the point a good deal as he lay there in the guard tent looking himself over, or stole a solitary walk now and then. And I say "stole" advisedly. Short of stealing away, a solitary walk was hard to get.
If, at the risk of his neck, he slid down some sheer cliff to the river's edge, few indeed would follow him, but a cadet boat might come along shore with a barge-load of girls in tow. And sometimes he was quick enough to dodge behind the bushes, and sometimes he sat still and let the shower of exclamations come.
"Oh, there's Mr. Kindred!"
"Just see Mr. Kindred!"
"Mr. Kindred, please get right into the boat."
"Haven't a permit."
"There's nobody round," said the Kitten. "Jump in quick. You never can get back up there without being dashed to pieces."
"Hardly with. Then there'll be one less 'additional' in the way."
"How dreadful! I thought you were better brought up than to talk so."
"I was."
"Were you really so very well brought up?" said the Kitten, with her head on one side. "Do you know, I should never have thought it."
Magnus rose to his feet, and doffed his cap profoundly.
"Now you've done it, Puss," said Miss Saucy.
"Why, I don't see how," said the Kitten. "I hate well-brought-up people; that's why I spoke."
"Better hate Kin as fast as you can, then," said Chappy from the boat, "so's there'll be a chance for some of the rest of us. Why, he don't sleep in chapel more than every other Sunday."
"How can he help going to sleep, poor boy?" said Miss Saucy. "Such sermons!"
"Well, come now," said another cadet, "that last sermon wasn't half bad. And not more than twice as long as was necessary."
"Yes, but for these times!" quoth Miss Saucy. "Why, it was just like saying 'Be good,' don't you know?"
"Hard upon the times, wasn't it?" said Magnus.
"Well, row on," said the Kitten with a deep sigh. "I see by his face nothing I can say will do any good. But it is such a pity! I never guessed he was that sort. A new fad, isn't it?" she said in a loud aside, as the oars dipped and rose. "Good-bye, Mr. Kindred! I hope your meditations will be very profitable."
"Thank you," Magnus answered, standing up again, "I think they will."
He watched the boat as it went on over the dimpling water, then changed his place a little, and began on a new end of his thoughts. This girl had "never guessed he was that sort."
Maybe she was only telling society fibs, but Magnus would not let himself off so. For what reason had he ever given her to think him a Christian? Where had his colours been, in all these walks and talks and meetings? Up his sleeve, in hiding?
"But I cannot flaunt them in people's faces," Magnus pleaded for himself.
No, and no more did the flag its stars and stripes; only waved them joyously overhead.
He had been ready to say that the constant frolic with the gay crowd was not good for him, but how about his side of the influence? Had he ever tried talking sense to girls whom he condemned for talking only nonsense? "Ye are the salt of the earth," but salt refreshes, stimulates, purifies; how far had he been like that? Without being priggish, without setting up for a preacher, could he not show in every way that the service of Christ was better than all else, and the knowledge of Him the most joyful thing in all this world? "Ye are my witnesses," said the Lord Jesus; and what sort of testimony did Cadet Magnus Kindred give from day to day? No matter how other men did, what had he done?
The final outcome of all these cogitations was a letter.
"Camp Golightly,
"July —, 18—."My Dear Mother:
"I don't see why you don't come East and look after your boy. How do you know what he is about here? Better come and see whether you want him home on furlough; that is, if that time ever comes, which I don't believe it will. Three, six, well nigh eight months yet before it will even be 'One hundred days to June.' Besides, they may find me in January, and then, instead of going home, I should go as straight to the Antipodes as if they'd shot me out of a catapult."
"Don't be uneasy; I'm not skinned more than twice a day on an average; skins grow fast here, and skinning is nothing when you get used to it. So the eels say. And I'm sure to take daddy's scalp when we get back to barracks. Not much of a possession, either, I must own."
"Do you realise, ma'am, that your son is that much detested and overworked and maligned being a yearling Corporal?—wearing chevrons, and sporting dignity enough for three Major-Generals? Come and see me drill the plebs; best fun you ever saw in your life—when you aren't one of 'em."
"But now, mother, this is serious. Do bring up our three girls respectably, so that when they come here for first-class camp, they'll know how to behave. But first of all, you've got to come yourself and brush me up. Buy your ticket for West Point, stop at Garrisons, cross in the ferryboat, and take the omnibus up the hill. Look out both sides all the way up; and the minute you see a grey uniform throw up his cap, get out. I suppose I might run it down the hill, but then if I get in con. and couldn't see you all the time you were here, it wouldn't pay. And Towser'd be sure to be round with his patent magnifiers."
"So I'll go to the edge of limits, and as you don't know where that is, look out. If you get lost, I'll put Towser on the track and he'll know where you are before you know it yourself. I wonder the Phil. Department don't set him to work on the lost Pleiad."
"Heigh-ho! I wish you were here this minute—with your bag full of gingercakes. I was on guard last night, and had nothing to eat but those old cast-iron sandwiches. So we put 'em in the reveille gun and they went off that way. Love to the girls. Don't bring 'em this time, but come yourself."
"Your (very) third class Corporal,
Charlemagne Kindred."
"I enclose a picture of myself which you may like to see."