Nancy forgot her wet clothes in her eloquence, and Teddy stared
wonderingly at her.

'Well,' he said, as if considering the matter, 'they may be sometimes
brave, but they don't fight like the soldiers, and they have no banners,
and red coats, and band; and they don't know how to march. A sailor walks
anyhow. I saw one once, and I thought he was tipsy, but he wasn't. A
sailor walks like a goose--he waddles!'

'You're the horridest, rudest boy I've ever seen!'

And with the utmost dignity Nancy walked away, Teddy calling after her,
'You made a pretty good charge for a girl, but you couldn't get past
me!' And then with one of his loud whoops he raced home, and hardly drew
a breath till he reached the farmhouse door. His grandmother confronted
him at once.

'You young rascal, what have you been doing? You're never a day out of
mischief. If I was your mother I'd give you a good whipping; but she
spoils you.'

'And you do, too, granny!'

Teddy's laughing blue eyes, as he raised them to the grim face before
him, conquered, as they generally did.

'There, go to your mother, she's in the dairy; I wash my hands of you.'

But Teddy crept up to his little room to change his wet clothes before he