Back Aa

His Big Opportunity

Close

<h2>XII</h2> LETTERS Very disappointed were the boys at Rob's first letter, which arrived about a fortnight after he had gone to the regimental depot at a neighboring town. "DEAR MASTER ROY: "I hope you and Master Dudley are quite well as it leaves me at present. I like it first-rate, but it is hard work, and I have a good many masters, but I means to do my best. God bless you. "From your faithful "ROB." "That's not a letter at all!" said Roy, scornfully; "why he tells us nothing at all! Why he might have gone to school and told us more! That from a soldier. It's the stupidest rot I've ever heard!" "I think you forget what a poor scholar Rob is," said Miss Bertram, reprovingly. "Now I think that is a remarkably good letter when I think what a short time he has been learning to write. You boys had better each write a proper letter to him yourselves, and ask him what you want to know. He will like to hear from you." And so that afternoon, sitting up in state at the library table, the boys spread out their writing materials and began to write. "I feel," said Roy, biting the end of his pen and looking up at the ceiling for an inspiration, "that I don't know quite how to begin. I should like to tell him not to write like an ass, when he knows he ought to tell us everything." "All right, tell him so," said Dudley, squaring his elbow and frowning terribly as he prepared himself for the task. "You know what old Selby says: 'Make your paper talk, my boys, and make it talk in your own tongues.'" After a great many interruptions from each other, and a few skirmishes round the table which resulted in the ink bottle being spilt, the letters were finished. Roy read his aloud with pride to Dudley, who did the same to him. "MY DEAR ROB: "You must write us longer letters. I am quite sure there is lots to tell. What do you have to eat? And where do you sleep? Have you got a gun of your own? Do they let soldiers shoot rabbits on their half-holidays? Does the band play while you are at dinner? What are your clothes like, and what are you to be called, now you're a soldier? When will you be a sergeant, and is there any fighting coming off soon? Old Principle says you will be learning drill. What is drill? He says it's learning how to march, but Dudley and I can do that first-rate. How many masters have you got? Write to me to-morrow and tell me all. I hope you will remember you are our soldier, and be sure you do something very grand as quick as ever you can. Have you got a sword and a medal? Do you ride on a horse, and can you fire off the cannon? I miss you very much but you belong to us, and must come back full of glory. "Your loving friend, "FITZ ROY BERTRAM." "MY DEAR ROB: "I hope you like being a soldier. How many soldiers are there in the same house with you? Give them my love and tell them we hope they liked the cake we put in your box for them. Roy came down to old Principle's with me yesterday. He showed us a hammer out of his cave he dug up. He says you will not be a full blown soldier for a year. He had a cousin who was a sergeant in India—and had his brains burst out in battle. When do you begin to fight? Tell us if you feel funky, and what the enemy looks like, and who they are. We think you ought to write us a much jollier letter. Roy's leg is first-rate, and he is up on the garden wall now like a cat. We sit there to do our evening prep: for old Selby. Good-bye. We're on the lookout for your name in the newspapers the first battle that comes off. "Roy's friend, "DUDLEY." "I don't think you've finished your letter properly," observed Roy, critically, as Dudley concluded reading his. "Why do you write you're my friend?" "Because I am," was the prompt reply; "I'm not Rob's friend and I shan't tell him I am. I just write to him because you do, that's all." "Don't you like him?" "I don't want him for my friend; he's going to be a kind of servant. Besides I wanted him to remember that I was your friend. I knew you long before he did, and if he was dead now, or if he never had been born, I should have been your friend just the same. We could have got on all right without him." This was not the first touch of jealousy that had appeared in Dudley's character. He had more than once quarrelled with Roy on account of the boy who he said had crept in between them, but on Roy always emphatically assuring him that Rob occupied a back place in his affections, Dudley would generally be appeased and become his sunny self again. "I like Rob very much," said Roy, slowly, "'specially now he's a soldier. I was thinking in church last Sunday, when they were reading about David and Jonathan, that Jonathan had an armor-bearer. That's Rob. Only I can't go to battle, so I send him. Don't you think that's a nice idea?" "Did he get killed?" asked Dudley, with interest; "I forget about him." "It doesn't say—I expect he lived as long as Jonathan did, and then perhaps David took him to be his servant. That's what I've settled with Rob, that he shall be your servant if I die." Dudley gave himself an impatient shake. "Oh, shut up with that rot, you'll live as long as I do!" Roy did not speak for a minute, then he said, slowly, "You remember my will that I made when I was so ill?" "Yes, what did you do with it?" "Aunt Judy found it the next morning on the floor nearly under the bed. She laughed a little at first, and then got quite grave when I explained it, and she took it away and locked it up somewhere. But if I never make another, you will remember that I have left Rob to you for your servant." Dudley looked up with a comical gleam in his eye. "And who gave Rob to you, old chap?" "I took him—at least he gave himself to me." Roy's tone was dignity itself, but Dudley laughed. "Well he doesn't belong to you any longer; the Queen has got him." "I have lent him to her, that's all." "You talk of Rob as if he is a slave. He's a Briton, and 'Britons shall be free!'" "So he is free, but he chose to be my servant when I grow up, and he shall be!" Dudley dropped the argument, for Roy's face was flushing hotly, and he was wonderfully patient with him since his accident. Miss Bertram entered the room at this juncture, and asked in her cheery brisk tones, "Would any boys like to drive me to the railway station in the pony trap? I am going up to London on business, and shall be away till to-morrow." "Hurray," shouted Roy; "we'll come, and just read our letters, Aunt Judy! Won't they make Rob see how he ought to write?" Miss Bertram took the letters in her hand, praised the little writers, and then sent them off to their rooms to get tidy for their drive. A short time after, Roy mounted in front with his aunt, was driving her with pride along the high road; whilst Dudley from the back seat kept them lively with his chatter and flow of fun. The boys always liked the bustle of the station; and getting a lad to hold the pony, they followed their aunt to the platform and saw her on board the train. Some friends spoke to her before the train went off and amongst them was a certain Captain Smalley. "I say," said Dudley, nudging Roy; "he's an officer, and he is in the army, I expect he knows Rob." "We'll ask him, directly the train is off." But in the bustle of the last few minutes they missed seeing him; the young captain got into his dog-cart, and was well on his way home before the boys were ready to start in their trap. "Oh, I say! See him in the distance! Whip up and let us catch him. Here, let me drive, it's my turn now!" But Roy clutched hold of the reins. "No, I want to." "I tell you it's my turn!" "It's the only thing I can do with one leg, it's a beastly shame of you!" Dudley, who had nearly got possession of the coveted reins dropped them instantly. "All right then, but go ahead!" And then Roy with a shamed look put the reins in his cousin's hands. "I'll give them up. Granny always says I'm selfish. It was awfully mean to talk of my leg. Now then hurry! Gee-up!" Dudley took the reins with a gratified smile, applied the whip, and the spirited little pony dashed along the road at such a rate, that a porter looked after them in dismay. "Those two young gents will come to their death afore they're satisfied," he remarked, and another man responded: "Yes, the little one is pretty well smashed up already, but legs or no legs, boys allays keeps their sperrits!" Captain Smalley was rather startled at hearing frantic shouts behind him, and when he pulled up wondering if some message were to be delivered, he was still more bewildered by what he heard. "Hi, Captain Smalley! Stop for us. We've come two miles out of our way. Now then, Roy, go ahead!" "Do you know Rob? We want you to tell us how he is. We can't get a word out of him; is there going to be any fighting? And how does he look in his clothes?" "Who is Rob?" asked Captain Smalley. "Why, he's a soldier like you. You must know him!" A few more explanations were made, and then the young man laughed heartily. "Your young friend is learning his recruit drill at the depot, I should think. If he were in my regiment I might not be able to give you much information about him. The army is a big affair, my boys, and I doubt if Rob and I will ever meet." The boys' faces fell considerably. "Do you think he likes it?" asked Roy, anxiously; "do you like being a soldier?" "Of course I do, and if he has any stuff in him he will like it, too." "And will he be sent to fight very soon?" "I dare say he may do his seven years without a single fight!" Roy looked very disappointed. "If he doesn't fight, he might just as well have stopped at home. What's the good of being a soldier if you don't have any battles?" "Soldiers prevent battles, sometimes." This sounded nonsense to the boys. They bade the captain good-bye, and turned their pony's head homeward quite disconsolate. "I'll write and tell him to come home if he's not going to do anything," said Roy, with his little mouth pursed up determinedly. "We'll give him a chance, first. He may go out to fight. Captain Smalley didn't say for certain." "I think Captain Smalley is funky himself about fighting, that's what I think!" And with this disdainful assertion Roy dismissed the subject. <hr style="width: 65%;"> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2