"We must be careful, then. You must tell me all about them. My name's Eager--Charles Eager. I've come to take Mr. Smythe's place at Wyvveloe. Do you two go to school?"
Emphatically No from both shaggy heads, and undisguised aversion to the very thought of such a thing.
"But you can't go on like this, you know. What will you do when you grow up?"
"Go fighting," said Jack of the bumped forehead.
"Quite so. But you don't want to go as privates, I suppose. And to be officers you must learn many things."
This was a new view of the matter. It seemed to make a somewhat unfavourable impression. It provided food for thought to Eager himself also, and he sat looking at them musingly with new and congenial vistas opening before him.
He had in him a great passion for humanity--for the uplifting and upbuilding of his fellows. Here apparently was virgin soil ready to his hand, and he wanted to set to work on it at once.
"You know how to read and write, I suppose?"
"We can read Robinson Crusoe--round the pictures."
"Of course. Good old Robinson Crusoe! He's taught many a boy to read."