He paused for a minute, and then his eyes flashed fire.

"Yes, Dudley, I'll let him go. It's me that's the coward to try and keep
him back! You and I shall send him, and he shall be our substitute, and
when we hear of him doing brave things, we shall feel it's ourselves.
And we'll make him write letters to us and tell us all he is doing--oh,
it will be splendid. How glad I am he has learned to read and write.
Dudley, you just go and fetch him in, will you?"

Dudley crammed rather a large piece of cake into his mouth, and dashed
out of the room; and a few minutes later dragged in the would-be
soldier.

"We've settled you can go, Rob," said Roy, with a little of his
masterful air about him; "only you're to go as _our_ soldier. I think if
I had had a good, broad, strong chest and never broke my leg, I should
have enlisted, but you can go instead of me. Are you glad?"

"I'm sorry to leave you, Master Roy, but I'd dearly like to go."

"We must tell granny and Aunt Judy, and see what they say first. But I'm
sure they'd like you to go."

No objection was made. Miss Bertram was rather pleased than otherwise.

"He will make a good soldier," she said, when talking it over with the
boys; "he is a steady, reliable lad, with not too many ideas of his own,
and implicitly obedient."

"Is that what makes a good soldier?" asked Roy. "I thought it was dash