"Not this year, ma'am. Indeed we have no real studies 'in camp.'"
"But still many things that deserve the name: I understand. What do you call the hardest thing you have to do?"
"Sometimes, 'study to be quiet,'" said Magnus, with a look and tone at once so playful and so full of feeling that Mrs. Gresham opened her heart, and took him right in.
"Ah, yes!" she said, "I can well believe it. And I am glad you have Bible words at hand for your hard places."
"Do you care about them?" said Magnus quickly. "I thought nobody did, here."
"About Bible words? Oh, yes they do!" said Mrs. Gresham, with her gentle smile. "You do not know many people here yet, Mr. Kindred."
"And I am not likely to, very soon," said Magnus. "But I spoke too quick. Yes, I know there are some right here in the Corps who care. There's Mr. Upright of the first class. I do not believe he ever misses a chance of doing the out-and-out thing for a Christian to do. And Mr. True of the third, he's another. Oh, there are a lot among us that know enough—if we only hold out," he added soberly.
Mrs. Gresham had listened for her son's name, but it did not come. He, too, "knew enough," but alas! only that very morning when he came in from drill, Magnus had heard him curse his horse, and the instructor, and the whole concern, in terms that would have wrung the gentle mother's heart. The girls did not know, as they hung upon his arm; the officers did not guess, seeing only the straight military figure and good face: only God knew, and the fellow-students to whom Gresham was setting his example. The mother felt the omission, sighed, waited, and sighed again; then silently locked up her fears and her disappointment.
"But you must hold out, Mr. Kindred," she said. "If you are a professing Christian, you have sworn it."
"Yes, ma'am," Magnus answered soberly, "and I mean it, too. But there are harder times here than you can guess."