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His Big Opportunity

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<h2>XI</h2> A GIFT TO THE QUEEN "Can I see Master Roy, please?" It was Rob who spoke, and he seemed breathless with haste and importance, as he stood at the front door one cold afternoon the end of October. "You can give me your message," the young footman said, rather superciliously. "No, I can't," was the blunt retort; "ask Master Roy to speak to me." Rob gained his point, and was ushered into the library where Roy and Dudley were amusing themselves in the firelight. The old nursery was not much used now, and the library had begun to be considered the boys' room, partly because owing to it being on the ground floor, and opening into the garden, it was more convenient for Roy's use. Roy was now the possessor of a cork leg; and with the help of a stick he was nearly as active as ever. His spirits were as high, and his purposes as plentiful as before his illness; and his grandmother and aunt marvelled that he could take his deformity so lightly. Yet there were times unknown to any, when Roy's brave little heart sank with the consciousness of it; and often in bed at night his pillow would be wet with tears. "Oh, God," he would often pray, "you wouldn't let me die, do help me to do something worth living for. I feel my leg will keep away all the opportunities now, but please give me something big to do for you still." "Hulloo, Rob, come on," was Roy's exclamation as he caught sight of his friend. "Just look at Nibble and Dibble, we're teaching them to draw a cart. It makes you die of laughing to look at them. There they go, and Dibble turns head over heels in his excitement!" Roy's happy laugh rang out, but though Dudley joined him, Rob's face was grave and set. "Please, can I speak to you on business, Master Roy?" "Goody! What a long face!" exclaimed Dudley, pulling down his own in imitation of Rob's, and thereby causing a fresh peal of laughter from Roy. "Have you been a naughty boy, Rob, and has old Hal been thrashing you? Have you been skylarking on the top of the greenhouse, and smashed through on Hal's pate?" "I should like to speak to Master Roy, alone," said Rob, a little wistfully; in no way disturbed by Dudley's teasing. "Oh, it's one of your secrets again. I'll be off, Roy, I want to see old Principle!" And Dudley dashed out of the room, whilst Rob came nearer and began his "business." "Master Roy, I've been thinking a lot lately, and Miss Bertram asked me the other day if I'd like any other job for the winter as there's hardly enough work for me in the garden now. And yesterday I saw a chap in the village I used to know. He's a recruiting sergeant for the ----shire regiment, and he wants me to enlist straight away. I wouldn't have given it a thought only what you said about serving the Queen has stuck to me, and it does seem a chance, and somehow that song has been in my head ever since I heard Miss Bertram sing it. I'd like to be in a regiment." Rob paused for breath, and Roy's eyes were wide open with wonder and astonishment. "But, Rob, you aren't old enough to be a soldier yet!" "I'm just the age—they take them at eighteen, and I was that the other day, only I don't look it." "But you're going to be my servant. I couldn't let you go." Rob's face fell. "I thought I could have seven years—or even twelve years would hardly find you ready to take up your property. And then I'd come back to you and never leave you again!" "But I want you with me now—always"—said Roy, in a distressed tone; "I couldn't do without you all that time, and it's horrid of you to want to get away from here, I think." "All right, Master Roy, I won't go—I'll get a job in the village that will keep me close at hand." Rob tried to speak cheerfully, and after waiting a minute to see if Roy would say any more, he left the room quietly; all the light having died out of his honest grey eyes. Roy watched the antics of his mice in the firelight, but his thoughts were far away from them. At last he opened the door and made his way up to his grandmother's room to have his usual chat with her before tea. "Granny, if a person you like will do anything you like, ought you to make that person do what you like instead of what they like?" "It sounds like a riddle," said Mrs. Bertram, with a smile. "I won't ask who the person is, the question is whether you like that person or yourself best. Which do you?" Roy did not answer for a minute, then he hung his head. "I'm afraid I like myself best." "If you give me more details, perhaps I can advise you." "Well, granny, may I talk first to Dudley about it, and then I'll tell you. But you see it's like this—the person wants to please you, and you can't pretend to be pleased if he does what doesn't please you!" "I think the best plan would be to leave yourself out of the question entirely, and only think of the other person; that would be the most unselfish way." Roy knitted his brows and heaved a heavy sigh. "Am I a very selfish person, granny?" "You are much more selfish than Dudley is," said Mrs. Bertram, decidedly, who never minced matters with her grandsons. Roy flushed a deep crimson, and his grandmother added, "I do not say that you are altogether to blame, for Dudley has always given way to you and spoiled you; but you do not very often think of his wishes before your own." "No, I never do." Roy's tone was of the deepest dejection; but the sudden entrance of Dudley gave a turn to the conversation, and he gradually recovered his spirits. When the two boys were at their tea half an hour later, Roy spread the whole matter before Dudley who looked at it in quite a different light. "How stunning! And is he really going? Hurray! One of us will be a soldier, at any rate. I wish I was big enough to go with him." "But I don't want him to go, and I told him so, and he isn't going!" Dudley opened his eyes at this. "You going to keep him back? Why you're the one that's always talking about serving the Queen, and fighting for her!" "Yes, I should like to, but—but Rob is different. I want him to be with me." "Then you don't care about serving the Queen, if you're going to do her out of a soldier who might fight for her!" This was quite a new aspect of the affair. "You think I'm like the dog in the manger? I can't go myself and I don't want him to. But if you go to a boarding school like Aunt Judy talks of, and I'm not allowed to go with you, and Rob is gone, I shall be left all alone; and I hate being alone, you don't know how I hate it—I think I should die!" "Well, if I was you and knew I couldn't be a soldier myself, I would love to send some one instead of me—you know how they do in France. Old Selby was telling us. They pay a subsidy—substitute—don't you call it?—to go and fight for them." "Yes, that is the coward's way," Roy said, scornfully. He paused for a minute, and then his eyes flashed fire. "Yes, Dudley, I'll let him go. It's me that's the coward to try and keep him back! You and I shall send him, and he shall be our substitute, and when we hear of him doing brave things, we shall feel it's ourselves. And we'll make him write letters to us and tell us all he is doing—oh, it will be splendid. How glad I am he has learned to read and write. Dudley, you just go and fetch him in, will you?" Dudley crammed rather a large piece of cake into his mouth, and dashed out of the room; and a few minutes later dragged in the would-be soldier. "We've settled you can go, Rob," said Roy, with a little of his masterful air about him; "only you're to go as our soldier. I think if I had had a good, broad, strong chest and never broke my leg, I should have enlisted, but you can go instead of me. Are you glad?" "I'm sorry to leave you, Master Roy, but I'd dearly like to go." "We must tell granny and Aunt Judy, and see what they say first. But I'm sure they'd like you to go." No objection was made. Miss Bertram was rather pleased than otherwise. "He will make a good soldier," she said, when talking it over with the boys; "he is a steady, reliable lad, with not too many ideas of his own, and implicitly obedient." "Is that what makes a good soldier?" asked Roy. "I thought it was dash and bravery." "Dash is a dangerous quality. Steady perseverance is better, Jonathan!" The next few days were most exciting ones for the boys. Roy and Rob had many a long talk together, and very earnest and serious subjects were touched upon. Rob had little time left to bid his friends farewell, but he went to old Principle, as a matter of course. "Yes," said the old man, a little proudly; "all the younger folks going out in life comes to me for a parting word. They laughs at me and my principles, but I'm proud of my nickname, and 'tis only right principles will make a man live right, and they knows it. What can I say to you, lad, but fear God and honor the Queen and those in authority under her. Never be afraid of holding to the right and denouncing the wrong, and may God Almighty take your body and soul in His keeping until we meet again." Rob's last day came, and an hour before his departure, in company with his friend, the sergeant, he came up to the Manor to bid them all farewell. Roy had some farewell words with him in the privacy of his bedroom. "We shall miss you awfully," he said, walking up and down the room to hide his emotion; "and it makes me wish I had your chance. But you'll remember, Rob, I look to you to be a rattling good soldier, much better than I should have been, and you'll be sure to do something grand and brave the very first opportunity, won't you? You must get the Victoria Cross, of course, and the account of you must be in the newspapers, so that we can read about you. And I shall pray that God will keep you safe, Rob. I hope you'll never have an arm or leg shot off, though I think that would be better than having them cut off. I hope you'll come back safe and sound. When shall we see you again?" "The sergeant told me I should get a month or six weeks' leave this time next year, Master Roy." "A year is a very long time. Rob, if I should die before I grow up, I want you to promise me that you will be Dudley's servant instead of mine. He will be master of Norrington Court, then, and I want you to live there." "But you aren't going to die, Master Roy, you will live and do great things yet." Roy shook his head a little sadly. "Sometimes I wonder if I ever will. I won't give up trying, but I shall never be anything but half a man, with my cork leg and my weak chest. Dudley would make a much grander master. Still there's one thing I can do. I can serve God—and I've sent you to serve the Queen, and I can try to serve my fellow creatures. Good-bye, dear Rob, will you kiss me." And then forgetting his dignity, Roy flung his arms round Rob's neck and hugged him passionately. "I'll never forget you carrying me home that night," he whispered in his ear, "I loved you from that time. And Rob you'll do what father told me to do—serve God first." Rob nodded, and as he knelt on the ground holding the frail little figure to him, he made a promise there and then in his heart that he would never do or say anything that he would be ashamed of Roy's hearing. "They're calling me, Master Roy, good-bye." He was gone, and Roy sitting down on the floor, leaned his head against his bed and burst into tears. Dudley found him there, and soon comforted him. "Look here, if you like it, let us get upon the wall and see Rob and the sergeant drive by; we can just see the high road, and Rob had to go to the inn first, so we shall have plenty of time." Roy's whole face beamed, he seized his stick and limped after Dudley without a thought of his leg, but when he reached the wall he came to a standstill. "I'm afraid I can't climb it, Dudley, I've never been on it since my leg was broken!" But Dudley would take no denial. "Oh, yes, you can, I'll hoist you up, we'll manage it." And "manage it" they did to Roy's intense delight, though Mrs. Bertram would have been horror-struck at the narrow escape the little invalid had, of falling to the ground during the proceeding. When they saw the trap in the distance, they set up a wild cheer, and waved their handkerchiefs frantically, and when they were answered by a cheer and a fluttering piece of white, they felt quite satisfied at their farewell. Before they got down from their high perch, Roy said, earnestly, "If God sent us Rob as an opportunity, Dudley, I wonder if we did him good." "Well, you see he was such a lot bigger than us, and Aunt Judy says she never saw such a steady good boy; it's very difficult to do good to good people, because you want to be so extra good yourself." "At any rate, we've made him the Queen's soldier." "Yes," argued Dudley, provokingly; "but he was the first one that thought of it!" "Oh, shut up," was Roy's impatient retort; "he told me himself it was the song of Jake and Jim that did it, and—and my talking to him." "And I expect the sergeant thinks it's all his doing." "But he wouldn't have gone unless I had told him he might." And as usual Roy had the last word. <hr style="width: 65%;"> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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