’I’ll never, never, never say I’m sorry.  I’m glad of what I said.  I don’t believe a word of it!’

And with this parting shot Nancy ran into the cottage, and the boys returned to the village more slowly than they came.

‘Mother,’ said Teddy that night, as his mother bent down for a ‘good-night’ kiss, ’I haven’t been good to-day, and I don’t feel good now.  I feel, when I think it over, so angry inside.’

‘What is it about, sonny?’

‘Father’s button.’  The tone was drowsy, and seeing his eyelids droop heavily Mrs. John said no more, only breathed a prayer that her little son might fight as bravely for Christ’s honour as he did for that of his father’s button.

CHAPTER III

A Recruiting Sergeant

It was Sunday morning.  Along a sweet-scented lane, with shady limes overhead and honeysuckle and wild roses growing in profusion on the hedges at each side, walked Teddy’s mother, holding her little son tightly by the hand.  The bells of the village church were ringing out for the service, and groups of two and three were passing in at the old lych gate.  Mrs. John was talking in her sweet clear voice to her boy, and he, letting his restless blue eyes rove to and fro, noting every bird on the hedges and every flower in the path, kept bringing them back to his mother’s face with a dreamy upward gaze.  ’I will try, mother, I really will.  I will keep my hands tight in my pockets, and my feet close together; I will pretend I’m going to be shot by a file of soldiers, and then I really think that will help me not to fidget.  I promise you I’ll be good to-day.’

And having received this protestation from him, Mrs. John passed into church with a relieved mind.  Teddy’s restless little body was a sore trial to any one who sat next him in church, and many were the lectures that had been bestowed on him by Sunday-school teacher and pastor, besides the gentle admonitions of his mother.

As Teddy quietly perched himself on the seat beside his mother, he murmured to himself, ’Twenty soldiers in front of me, twenty rifles pointing—­I shall stand like a rock—­I’ll set my teeth, and I shan’t even blink my eyes.  Now I see the officer coming—­he’s going to say, “Present!” I’m not moving a muscle.  Five minutes more they’ll give me—­’

His active brain here received a check.  There on the opposite side, facing him, was Nancy, seated between her mother and old Sol.  She was still in her sailor suit, and with her dark mischievous brown eyes fixed steadily on him, Teddy could not remain unmoved beneath her gaze for long.  His little hands were working nervously in his coat pockets.  Why did she stare at him so?  Well, he could stare back, and then blue eyes and brown confronted each other for some moments with unblinking defiance in their gaze.  At last Teddy’s patience gave way, and twisting up his little features into a most grotesque grimace, he mounted a hassock to give her the full benefit of it.