with us (not the advance guard, but the first of the battery)--he
shouted--

'Three cheers for the Queen and the British Army!' And then we
waved the flag, and bellowed. Oswald stood on the wall to bellow
better, and Denny waved the flag because he was a visitor, and so
politeness made us let him enjoy the fat of whatever there was
going.

The soldiers did not cheer that day; they only grinned and kissed
their hands.

The next day we all got up as much like soldiers as we could. H.
O. and Noel had tin swords, and we asked Albert's uncle to let us
wear some of the real arms that are on the wall in the dining-room.

And he said, 'Yes', if we would clean them up afterwards. But we
jolly well cleaned them up first with Brooke's soap and brick dust
and vinegar, and the knife polish (invented by the great and
immortal Duke of Wellington in his spare time when he was not
conquering Napoleon. Three cheers for our Iron Duke!), and with
emery paper and wash leather and whitening. Oswald wore a cavalry
sabre in its sheath. Alice and the Mouse had pistols in their
belts, large old flint-locks, with bits of red flannel behind the
flints. Denny had a naval cutlass, a very beautiful blade, and old
enough to have been at Trafalgar. I hope it was. The others had
French sword-bayonets that were used in the Franco-German war.
They are very bright when you get them bright, but the sheaths are
hard to polish. Each sword-bayonet has the name on the blade of
the warrior who once wielded it. I wonder where they are now.