Part 5 (1/2)

”Now, don't you go putting on airs, just because you happen to have been in the Legion a little longer than _some_ people. Of course, I'm going to speak to my friends. I don't care where they are or what they happen to be at the time, or who happens to think himself over them.”

And she walked up to the helpless sentinel with her hand outstretched, while the equally helpless Lieutenant got very red indeed, and Basil s.h.i.+fted his gun to a very unmilitary position and held out his hand.

”Let me see your gun, Basil,” she added, and the boy obediently handed it over to her, while the little Lieutenant turned redder still.

”You go to the guard-house for that, Crittenden,” he said, quietly.

”Don't you know you oughtn't to give up your gun to anybody except your commanding officer?”

”Does he, indeed?” said the girl, just as quietly. ”Well, I'll see the Colonel.” And Basil saluted soberly, knowing there was no guard-house for him that night.

”Anyhow,” she added, ”I'm the commanding officer here.” And then the gallant lieutenant saluted too.

”You are, indeed,” he said; and Phyllis turned to give Basil a parting smile.

Crittenden followed them to the Colonel's tent, which had a raised floor and the good cheer of cigar-boxes, and of something under his cot that looked like a champagne-basket; and he smiled to think of Chaffee's Spartan-like outfit at Chickamauga. Every now and then a soldier would come up with a complaint, and the Colonel would attend to him personally.

It was plain that the old ex-Confederate was the father of the regiment, and was beloved as such; and Crittenden was again struck with the contrast it all was to what he had just seen, knowing well, however, that the chief difference was in the spirit in which regular and volunteer approached the matter in hand. With one, it was a business pure and simple, to which he was trained. With the other, it was a lark at first, but business it soon would be, and a das.h.i.+ng business at that.

There was the same crowd before the tent--Judith, who greeted him with gracious frankness, but with a humorous light in her eye that set him again to wondering; and Phyllis and Phyllis's mother, Mrs. Stanton, who no sooner saw Crittenden than she furtively looked at Judith with a solicitude that was maternal and significant.

There can be no better hot-bed of sentiment than the mood of man and woman when the man is going to war; and if Mrs. Stanton had not shaken that nugget of wisdom from her memories of the old war, she would have known it anyhow, for she was blessed with a perennial sympathy for the heart-troubles of the young, and she was as quick to apply a remedy to the children of other people as she was to her own, whom, by the way, she cured, one by one, as they grew old enough to love and suffer, and learn through suffering what it was to be happy. And how other mothers wondered how it was all done! In truth, her method--if she had a conscious method--was as mysterious and as sure as is the way of nature; and one could no more catch her nursing a budding pa.s.sion here and there than one could catch nature making the bluegra.s.s grow. Everybody saw the result; n.o.body saw just how it was done. That afternoon an instance was at hand. Judith wanted to go home, and Mrs. Stanton, who had brought her to camp, wanted to go to town. Phyllis, too, wanted to go home, and her wicked little brother, Walter, who had brought her, climbed into Basil's brake before her eyes, and, making a face at her, disappeared in a cloud of dust. Of course, neither of the brothers nor the two girls knew what was going on, but, a few minutes later, there was Basil pleading with Mrs. Stanton to let him take Phyllis home, and there was Crittenden politely asking the privilege of taking Judith into his buggy. The girl looked embarra.s.sed, but when Mrs. Stanton made a gracious feint of giving up her trip to town, Judith even more graciously declined to allow her, and, with a smile to Crittenden, as though he were a conscious partner in her effort to save Mrs. Stanton trouble, gave him her hand and was helped into the smart trap, with its top pressed flat, its narrow seat and a high-headed, high-reined, half-thoroughbred restive between the slender shafts; and a moment later, smiled a good-by to the placid lady, who, with a sigh that was half an envious memory, half the throb of a big, kind heart, turned to her own carriage, a.s.suring herself that it really was imperative for her to drive to town, if for no other reason than to see that her mischievous boy got out of town with the younger Crittenden's brake.

Judith and Crittenden were out of the push of cart, carriage, wagon, and street-car now, and out of the smoke and dust of the town, and Crittenden pulled his horse down to a slow trot. The air was clear and fragrant and restful. So far, the two had spoken scarcely a dozen words.

Crittenden was embarra.s.sed--he hardly knew why--and Judith saw it, and there was a suppressed smile at the corners of her mouth which Crittenden did not see.

”It's too bad.”

Crittenden turned suddenly.

”It's a great pleasure.”

”For which you have Mrs. Stanton to thank. You would have got it for yourself five--dear me; is it possible?--five years ago.”

”Seven years ago,” corrected Crittenden, grimly. ”I was more self-indulgent seven years ago than I am now.”

”And the temptation was greater then.”

The smile at her mouth twitched her lips faintly, and still Crittenden did not see; he was too serious, and he kept silent.

The clock-like stroke of the horse's high-lifted feet came sharply out on the hard road. The cus.h.i.+oned springs under them creaked softly now and then, and the hum of the slender, glittering spokes was noiseless and drowsy.

”You haven't changed much,” said Judith, ”except for the better.”

”You haven't changed at all. You couldn't--for better or worse.”

Judith smiled dreamily and her eyes were looking backward--very far backward. Suddenly they were shot with mischief.

”Why, you really don't seem to--” she hesitated--”to like me any more.”