The Tin Soldier

rshing's divisions. Margaret was to have news of him this evening, brought by a young English officer, Dawson H

guest was to be

d after that there was always the story hour, with nurse safely downstairs for her dinner, their mother, lovely in a low-necked gown, and father coming in at the end. For several months their fath

e evening hour. He was a famous story-teller

e had rebelled hotly, "Why should he be sacrificed?" she had asked her husband more than once during the three years which had preceded America's entran

the South, and he drew upon its store of picturesque endearments to express

but the General is different. Aunt Edith made Derry live his father's life, not his own, and it h

t's a mighty good thing in life. Derry Drake is as hard as steel, and as finely tempered.

he wealth of her womanly sympathy. It was perhaps the knowledge of this as

each side of her. She was in white, her dark hair in a simple shining knot, a li

aid, as he came in. "I just w

He looked tired, unli

ng the

se. Richards has gone to the front. Bronson will

one for herself and one for Teddy. It was Derry's war-time offering. No other candies were permitted by Margaret's patriotism. Her children ate molasses on their bread, maple sugar

ncle Derry," Teddy plea

listen to

d of me," Marg

on enunciated carefully, "but you

y I turn them ove

. But you mus

the glow of the fire to illumine faintly the three figure

n armor, and wooden trumpeters carved on the door who blew with all their might, 'Trutter-a-trutt, Trutter-a-trutt'-. But the old man and the portraits and the wooden trumpeters had no thought for the Tin Sold

ing," Margare

med, "I'd have put him on the floor

the Tin Soldier could stand it no longer. 'I will go to the wars, I wi

. "Go on, go on," urged th

as kind to him as that. For when the little boy came again to the old house, he looked for the Tin Soldier. But he wasn't on the shelf. And he looked and lo

ldier had fallen through a crack in the fl

ice of Captain Hewes. Margaret sped down to meet them, leaving

she had a chance to say, "I h

time to send him away to war. But Hans And

pply of cheerfulness had seemed inexhaustible? Whose persis

ion. She was aware, too, of the mistake which she h

; he was a soldier with but one idea, that every physically able man should fight. Every sent

ary to change the subject franticall

military sixth sense, he felt that he had been asked to b

, she soothed the Captain with old and familiar songs, "Flow gently

o "I'm going to marry 'Arr

d him singing to the chaps in the trenches just before I sailed-a l

hich the little man in the red kilt had imparted to it as he had sung it in

d, "what the war has done to him,

is one of the things the war is doing, bringin

on the keys, and into the B

he watch fires of a h

m an altar in the ev

ous sentence by the d

is march

ptain Hewes-as the girl chanted them, in that re

the trumpet that sha

e hearts of men befo

ul, to answer Him,

is march

e edge of his chair.

ejaculated, "t

her back to the piano,

e lilies, Christ was

is bosom that trans

men holy, let us di

d is mar

rose in her hair-her white arms, her white neck, t

had swept him up to unexpected heights of emotion. While Drusilla sang he had glimpsed for the first tim

ion was not of Democracy, but of a freezing night-of a ra

t, my soul-t

lant my

that of all songs? Oh,

elephone. The message was from Dr. McKenzie. The General

y with her flushed air of apology, and went out into the stormy night. He had preferred to walk, although his shoes we

onscious only of his depression and of his great dread of again entering the big house where a sick man lay in a lacquered bed and where a pain

arrived that the Doctor h

our which her nurse's uniform cast over her. In evening dress she was slightly commonplace. In ordinary street garb not an eye would hav

the stairway she gave her a slight glance. T

hy I wanted Miss Merritt. She is very experienced, an

oice shaking. "Is

But I think we are goi

Something clutched at the boy's heart-the fear of the Thing which lur

n intention if not in deed. Not thus must the Obstacle be removed. He raised haggard eyes to t

get morbid over it; he has everything in his

r when others were present was professionally deferential. It was o

ed about the room. "I shall be very comfortable," she sai

lace but Cook," he explained. "Sh

"but I want Hilda with him at night; she can call m

his young master got out of his wet clothes and into a hot bath. "All the time the Doctor was talking

't ride-I

removing the wet shoes lo

mes, Bronson, when

nson and Muffin-to the gray old dog

ankets in a basket by the hot water pipes, opened t

ffin," said Derry

g whuffed

ir nightly

ights. Derry lay watching it, and it was a long time before he slept.

he confectioner's, her eyes cold above her chocolate; the English Captain and his contemp

n came in to light the fire and draw the water for his

r stay in be

shall. Ho

ys he is hold

glad o

to Muffin, ventured an opinion, "I am

y n

a lady, and she's n

o, had picked up an envelope with embossed thistle

pretty does,"

pillows. He was rereading the letter with the thistles on the flap. T

k I'll

your mi

the covers. "I've a t

life nor death nor flood nor fire should keep him from presenting himself at four o'clock at Jean