"Because—"
"Courtesy to a guest becomes a duty in a host."
"But there was Kathie. Dick and I were going down to take a row."
"I have a fancy Dick likes the croqueting as well as he would have liked the rowing."
Dick Grayson's pleasant laugh floated over to them as he said, "Not so bad a beat, after all, Mr. Meredith."
"The life soldiering is not quite so arbitrary. A good deal of it is left to conscience. But if a sentinel at some outpost followed his own devices and let a spy pass the line—"
"He would be shot, of course."
"It seems hard, doesn't it, just for one little thing? Yet if one or two men escaped punishment the army would soon be in a state of insubordination. Then when a captain came to lead them in battle each man might consider his way and opinion best. Would it answer?"
"No, it wouldn't," replied the boy. "But, Uncle Robert, if God had made us—stronger."