"Oh, how I wish I could be a soldier!" was the muttered exclamation of
Roy, "I shall never be able to serve the Queen now!"

"Nonsense," said Miss Bertram, briskly; "granny would tell you 'that all
the Bertrams have always served the Queen, and only a few of them have
been soldiers!'"

"Well, I suppose they have been sailors?" said Dudley.

"Not at all; we have only had one admiral, and three naval captains in
our family during the last hundred years. Your father, Dudley, served
the Queen as a governor in India quite as well as if he were fighting
for her. Roy's father was her servant in Canada, though he had to do
with politics; your uncle James served as a member of Parliament. The
Queen has numbers of servants. I always think policemen are quite as
brave as soldiers!"

"And what can a one-legged Bertram do?" Roy asked, with a pathetic smile
that went straight to his aunt's heart.

"There's no reason why he shouldn't go into Parliament, and perhaps end
by being a member of the cabinet."

"I never quite understand what that is," said Roy, contemplatively. "I
don't think I should like to be shut up in a stuffy cupboard. They shut
them up in it to talk, don't they, Aunt Judy?"

How Miss Bertram laughed! But whilst she was explaining what a cabinet
was, Rob crept away from the window muttering, "I suppose as how I could
be a policeman, but I'd a deal rather be a soldier!"