'Yes,' nodded Nancy; 'sailors and soldiers are quite even, and my father is just as good as your father was!'
Teddy looked a little bit doubtful at this, but wisely refrained from making any objection to the assertion; and then they parted, Nancy calling out after him,—
'And when you die, and I get the button, I shall wear it as a brooch!'
'Mother,' said Teddy, a few days after this, as she was paying him her usual 'good-night' visit, 'it's a very funny thing; but do you know, I used to wish for an enemy so much, to fight and carry on with, and now I've got one, and have Ipse to fight with, I'm getting rather tired of him. Is that wicked? I asked Mr. Upton to-day if I couldn't ever get rid of Ipse—I mean when I am grown up, but he said I never should altogether, but that I could keep him well under, so that he wouldn't trouble me so. He does trouble me a lot now'
'Soldiers must never get tired of fighting, sonny, and you have your
Captain to help you.'
'Yes; and I suppose when I get bigger and stronger it will be much easier, won't it? Mother, do you have any fighting? Have you got an enemy like me?'
'Yes, indeed I have, my boy.'
'But you're never beaten, are you? You never do anything wrong!'
'I don't get into mischief, and disobey orders, perhaps,' Mrs. John said, smiling; 'but I have lots of difficulties and temptations that you know little about, sonny, and I am afraid I very often get beaten by the enemy.'
Teddy pondered over this. 'When I get to heaven I shan't have to fight with Ipse, shall I?'