"So you didn't find war quite such a jolly thing as you used to think it would be?" she said, looking across at him with a tearful smile.
"No," he answered thoughtfully. "I suppose things that you have long set your mind on seldom turn out exactly what you want and expect them to be. I'm glad I saw active service, and I'd go through it all again a hundred times for the sake of having been with Valentine when he died; though it was little I could do for him, more than to say good-bye."
Queen Mab rose from her chair, and stooped over the speaker to wish him good-night.
"Never mind," she said softly. "I'm glad to think of both my boys that their warfare is accomplished!"
CHAPTER XXII
CONCLUSION.
"I never dreamed of such happiness as this while I was an ugly duckling!"—The Ugly Duckling.
The old house at Brenlands still remains unaltered, except that the empty room upstairs, once the scene of so many terrible conflicts between miniature metal armies, has been turned into a nursery. Another generation of children is growing up now, and eagerly they listen while Aunt Mabel tells the old story of the tin soldier who went adventuring in a paper boat, and came back in the end to the place from which he had started; or the history of the little lead captain, who stands keeping guard over the precious things in the treasure cupboard; and who once, after bearing the brunt of a long engagement, fell in front of his men, just as the fighting ended.
When the nursery is in use, a long-forgotten little gateway makes its appearance at the top of the stairs, and "Uncle Jack" pays toll through the bars to the chubby little Helen standing on the other side.