“Why Edith, you have come out in company colors too, to-day,” Clark said suddenly, noticing the pale blue ribbons she wore.
Edith colored a little. “The girls would make me wear them,” she said. “They are all interested in Company D. Two of them have brothers in that company, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” said Clark, absently.
Edith, following the direction of his eyes, leaned forward, and looked intently at the group of boys he was watching. “Do all those boys belong in your section?” she asked.
“Most of them do,” Clark answered, “and they are no credit to the section either—some of them.”
“I wish Ray would come back here with us,” Edith said, sadly. “He used to go everywhere with me, but he never goes anywhere with me now.”
Clark longed to say something to comfort her, but he did not know what to say, so he was silent.
Promptly at four o’clock, Company E appeared. In spite of her troubled thoughts, Edith could not help laughing, as a woman in the front seat, at sight of her boy in the ranks, cried out, “There he is! There’s Johnny!” and as a welcoming cheer greeted the approaching company, Johnny’s mother not only joined heartily in it, but, rising, swung her umbrella in the air and pounded the rail in front with it, while she shouted, “Hurrah for Company E!”
But the crowd was a good-natured one, and those around her only laughed as they dodged to avoid the blue umbrella that seemed quite likely to hit somebody over the head, so great was its owner’s excitement.
Company E drilled well, and the joyful excitement of “Johnny’s” mother increased as one evolution after another was performed without mishap. But alas! There are so many chances, and so many possible mistakes! The captain of Company E was so unfortunate as to lead his men so near the grand stand in one of the marches, that the commanding officer ordered them off, and this so confused the men that their firing was by no means up to the mark.