Teddy listened eagerly. 'No wonder no one couldn't find it!' he said, fingering his adornment proudly. 'It's like the fish that brought Peter some money once.'
Then the colonel turned to one of his friends.
'Now, major, what do you think of this youngster? Would you like to take him as a drummer boy into your regiment?'
The major scanned the boy from head to foot, then answered emphatically,
'I wouldn't take a boy with a face like that for a good deal!'
'Why not?' asked Mrs. Graham.
'Because it's the ruination of them. I shall never forget a pretty boy we had once; he was called the "cherub," and had been a chorister—sang divinely. He was only four years in the regiment, and his case was brought to me before he was discharged. He came to us an angel, and departed a finished young blackguard. He drank, stole, and lied to any extent, and was as well versed in vicious sins as any old toper in the regiment. When I see a fresh drummer brought in, I wonder how long he will keep his innocence, and sometimes wish his friends could see the life he is subjected to. I give them a month generally, and then away flies their bloom and all their home training.'
'But, Major Tracy, you are giving us a shocking idea of the morals in the
Service,' said one lady.
He shrugged his shoulders. 'I grant you, on the whole, they are better than they were, but the Service is no place for highly strung boys like this one. The rougher, harder natures get on best. When they get older, and have sense and strength enough to stick to their principles, then let them enlist.'
'But I have always heard,' said Mrs. Graham, 'that the drummer boys are well looked after now. They have a room to themselves, and the chaplains have classes for them.'
'That may be. I would only ask you to watch a boy, as I have, from the start, and see what kind of a man he grows into after having spent most of his early youth in the Service. There are exceptions, I know, but precious few, as far as my experience goes.'