“Why then,” said Joe, “we should have to obey orders.”
“Ah, and he mightn’t say that, Joe, as he’s such a nice little fellow.”
“Course, he mightn’t,” replied Joe.
“Hah!” ejaculated Mrs Corporal Beane, and she said no more. But at the next halting-place she began to think: and the result of her thinking was that she got hold of an old uniform suit and by working very hard every time the regiment halted she contrived to cut the suit down till it roughly fitted the little invalid, braiding it like the drum and bugle boys’, and making a little military cap as well, so that by the time he was able to trot along in the rear of the regiment he did not seem out of place.
“Joe,” said Mrs Corporal one morning, “look at him; don’t he look splendid? He’s our soldier boy now, and I shall call him Dick.”
“All right,” said the corporal; “Dick ain’t bad, but you might ha’ called him Joe the second.”
Chapter Three.
It was quite six weeks after Dick had been found, and he was weak still, but that only troubled him by making him feel tired, and at such times there was always a ride ready for him on the top of a pack carried by a mule.