"Yes, that's the place. Won't it stay?"
"I'll put a safety pin in, sir; and then to-night shift the buttons. That's what it wants."
"Yes, do, High. That's fine."
He held out his arm and the two girls pinned to advantage the splendid sign of his splendid triumph.
"There, sir. Now it shows. And won't we be proud of you, just, in khaki and all!"
He laughed delightedly. "I'm jolly proud of myself, I tell you! Now, then, Thumbs, I don't want bayonets in me yet!"
Glorious! Glorious! And what would not Nona say!
CHAPTER IX
I
Life, when it takes so giant a hand in its puppet show as to upturn a cauldron of world war upon the puppets, may be imagined biting its fingers in some chagrin at the little result in particular instances. As vegetation beneath snow, so individual development beneath universal calamity. Nature persists; individual life persists. The snow melts, the calamity passes; the green things spring again, the individual lives are but approached more nearly to their several destinations.