There was a very general exclamation.
"You!" exclaimed Rob, aghast at the unlooked-for application.
"I have neither wife nor children. I am young, strong, in good health, and though I do not fancy a military life above all others, I still think I could endure the hardships like a good soldier, and if I stood in the front ranks to face the enemy I do not believe that I should run away."
He rose as he said this, and, folding his arms across his chest, leaned against the vine-covered column of the porch, looking every inch a soldier without the uniform.
It would break his mother's heart to have Uncle Robert go, and there was Aunt Ruth, and Kathie, and Freddy; but—what a handsome soldier he would make! Major Alston, or Colonel Alston,—how grand it would sound! So you see Rob was quite taken with military glory.
Kathie came and slipped her hand within Uncle Robert's. "We could not spare you," she whispered, softly.
"But if I were drafted?"
"Well," exclaimed Rob, stubbornly clinging to his point, "the boys over in the village think it will make some fun. There's a queer little recruiting shanty on the green, and a fifer and a drummer. If our quota isn't filled by next Wednesday,—and they all say it won't be,—the draft is to commence. I'm glad I'm not going away until the first of October. I only wish—"
"I wish you were, if that will do you any good," answered Mr. Meredith, glancing up from his book which he had been pretending to read.
"I'd rather enlist than go to school."