'I'm sure he would, for he doesn't like the Hare and Hounds. He said he was a teetotaller.'
'Come, that sounds good,' Mrs. Platt remarked. 'Well, you can ask him in for your father's sake.'
Not much dinner could Teddy eat that day, and his lessons at school had never seemed so irksome to him; but they were over at last, and he tore off in search of his new friend, finding him at length sitting under an old yew-tree just outside the churchyard.
'Granny says will you come to tea with us?' he asked breathlessly, as he came up to him.
The corporal looked up. He was a fine-looking young man with a frank, bright face, and he was reading a well-worn Bible, which he put carefully in his pocket before he rose to his feet.
'That's very kind of your granny,' he said; 'and I'll come with pleasure.
I'm out of it at the Hare and Hounds.'
Teddy's quick eyes had spied the Bible.
'Do you like the Bible?' he asked gravely.
'It's my order book,' the corporal said with a smile, 'and my best friend in the world.'
'What's an order book?'