If my young readers wish to know why Tom’s appointment was so well received by his companions in arms, I can only reply, that he had not only been brave and cheerful in the midst of peril and hardship, but he was kind and obliging to his comrades.  He had always been willing to help those that needed help, to sympathize with those in trouble, and generally to do all he could to render those around him happy.

Above all these considerations, Tom was a young man of high principle.  He had obeyed his mother’s parting injunction, often repeated in the letters which came to him from home, and had faithfully “read his Testament.”  Without being a hypocrite or a canting saint, Tom carried about with him the true elements of Christian character.

Tom had fought a greater battle than that in which he had been engaged at Bull Run a hundred times, in resisting the temptations which beset him from within and without.  True to God and true to himself, he had won the victory.  Though his lot was cast in the midst of men who swore, gambled, and drank liquor, he had shunned these vices, and loved the sinner while he hated the sin.  Such a person could not fail to win the respect of his companions.  Though he had been jeered at and insulted for being sober, honest, and pious, he had fought down and lived down all these vilifiers, and won their esteem.

It must be acknowledged that Tom’s piety was of the robust type.  He would not allow any man to insult him; and after the chastisement he had given Ben Lethbridge, not even those who were strong enough to whip him were disposed to trespass upon his rights and dignity.  Perhaps Tom’s creed needed a little revising; but he lived under martial law, which does not take cognizance of insults and revilings.  He was willing to be smitten on the one cheek, and on the other also, for the good of his country, or even his friends, but not to be wantonly insulted.

The influence of Tom’s principles was not confined to himself, for “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”  This was particularly true of Hapgood, who, more through Tom’s preaching and practice than from any strength in his own character, had steadily maintained his purpose to abstain from intoxicating drinks, though occasional opportunities were presented for the indulgence of his darling vice.  Tom and he read the Testament and other good books which were sent to the regiment, and both profited by them.

When the soldier boy was discharged from the hospital, the surgeon gave him a pair of woolen socks, from a case of them which had been sent by the friends of the soldier in Boston and its vicinity.  He was very much in need of them, and from the depths of his heart he blessed the ladies who had done this good work.  He unrolled the socks, and proceeded to pull one of them on.  It was as good a fit as though his mother had knit it on purpose for him.

“God bless the lady that knit these socks!” exclaimed Tom, as he began to draw on the other.