"No, I don't," I answered smiling.
"'Cause Granny said I might have a roly-poly pudding soon," he said, "and I do hope it's not to-day. If it is bread-and-butter pudding I don't mind, as I don't like bread-and-butter pudding."
"I can't tell you what pudding it is," I repeated.
"Uncle Godfrey said I was a very naughty boy," he went on.
"So you were," I said, but mildly, and not with the decision the case demanded.
"I didn't want to frighten you, or my Granny, or anyone," he said humbly, with the effects of his uncle's scolding and punishment still fresh in his memory. "But I did want to be a soldier and fight; and Uncle Godfrey says I'm not one, and I never was one, and that the soldier was only laughing at me when he said I was. And I can't be a soldier for a long while—a very, very, very long while."
"Not that kind of soldier," I said, "but I know another kind of soldier that you can be."
"The Queen's soldier?" asked Chris eagerly.
"No, but the King's soldier," I replied. "You can be one of Christ's soldiers. Whenever you try hard to be good and obedient when you feel inclined to be naughty and wilful; whenever you try not to say the angry word, to think the unkind thought you would like to say, you would like to think; whenever you turn your back on what is mean and unmanly and follow what is true and noble; whenever you do this for His sake, then, Chris, you are fighting for Christ, you are Christ's soldier.
"But," I went on as I saw that I had gained his attention, "there is a great difference between these battles and the others that you were speaking of. In fighting for the Queen you have to be very brave and no coward, it is true. But you have the cheers of your countrymen to inspirit you. You know that your country is watching you, and that helps you to meet your enemies with courage. In these other battles, fought for Christ, there are no cheers to excite you, no one watching but God, and God only. For these fights must be fought silently, quite by yourself,—God your only Help,—or they are not worth the name of battles. But, by and by, on that silent battle-field, where so many struggles have been gone through, and so many hard victories won through the grace of God, the silence will at last be broken. It will be broken by a sound full of triumphant joy, too heavenly in its beauty for earthly ears to catch, but a sound that will make the angels in heaven rejoice, a sound of—"