"Now you look as you ought to look!"
"I don't think mamma would think so," said Daisy panting and laughing.
"Yes, she would. Now tell me--do you call yourself a soldier?"
"I don't know whether there can be such little soldiers," said Daisy.
"If there can be, I am."
"And what fighting do you expect to do, little one?"
"I don't know," said Daisy. "Not very well."
"What enemies are you going to face?"
But Daisy only looked rather hard at the Captain and made him no answer.
"Do you expect to emulate the charge of the Light Brigade, in some tilt
against fancied wrong?"
Daisy looked at her friend; she did not quite understand him, but his
last words were intelligible.
"I don't know," she said meekly. "But if I do it will not be because the
order is a _mistake_, Capt. Drummond."
The Captain bit his lip. "Daisy," said he, "are you the only soldier in
the family?"
Daisy sat still, looking up over the sunny slopes of ground towards the
house.
The sunbeams shewed it bright and stately on the higher ground; they
poured over a rich luxuriant spread of greensward and trees, highly
kept; stately and fair; and Daisy could not help remembering that in all
that domain, so far as she knew, there was not a thought in any heart of
being the sort of soldier she wished to be.
Pages:
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148