“I should say, ‘Just forget about this matter, sergeant,’” he advised finally, and turned his attention to his book.
“And keep the dog, sir?” I asked, just to make certain.
“Yes. Yes, of course, you must keep the dog.” He sounded rather impatient, as if he didn’t like to seem too lenient, and I took the hint, thanked him and started to go, just as the door opened and Chilblaines himself reported. I decided to stay until I was sent out—which was immediately, for the General said, “You may go, sergeant,” as soon as he saw who his visitor was. I closed the door behind me, but lingered for a few moments in front of it, using an unwrapped puttee as a pretext.
Sure enough, Chilblaines promptly reported my dastardly insubordination. I stopped breathing in order to hear what the General had to say on the matter, but his speech was so long that I almost choked. “Chilton,” I heard him say, as if he were talking to a little boy, “I don’t know whether you will ever go to a higher rank than your present one, but I’m quite certain that you never will until you’ve altered your attitude toward your environment, and particularly your subordinates. You must learn to look forward instead of backward, upward instead of down, and to value morale more than discipline. A martinet seldom if ever makes any real success in wartime. Discipline that doesn’t embrace common sense will not make a powerful leader. Success is not won by wasting time on past defeats, but by working toward the victories of the future.... Now this dog matter is a case in point, something in the past. It makes no difference how he came aboard. The point is that he is here and, regardless of all the regulations, which are intended in this case to prevent what might develop into a general nuisance, he is doing no one any harm whatsoever. If there were a thousand howling, yapping, hungry dogs, it would be a different matter entirely—and would come under the ban of regulations. But one single little animal that bothers no one and makes practically no impression on the ship’s rations—why, can’t you see, man, how foolish it is to make a mountain of such a molehill?”
Chilblaines didn’t answer, so the General continued, “There is nothing to be gained either for you or for the United States Army by breeding ill feeling from an incident like this, so let’s just forget about it.”
When I heard that, I beat a hasty retreat. A moment later Chilblaines appeared, very flushed in the face and looking rather uncomfortable. I chalked up a great big mark to the General’s credit, believe me.
He surely was one fine man. Ben said he was a “damn good guy!” And Esky seemed to know something had happened, for he made no bones about romping all over the compartment, since Ben ceased to restrain him. He made friends for us all over the place, and I felt pretty good.
—3—
Nothing much happened the next day, except a darned good time down in our hole, singing barrack-room ballads and telling dirty stories. I didn’t tell any, but I did a good job at listening.
Oh, yes, something else did happen. Ben was fully recovered, eating like a horse and buying chewing tobacco again—and this last got him into trouble.