“‘You are the commander,’ said the General. ‘What are your orders?’
“At first Mick couldn’t believe his ears. Of course it sounded too good to be true, so you could hardly blame him. But he wasn’t going to lose the chance, so he swung around and faced the thousands of soldiers and shouted just as loud as he possibly could:
“‘Forward, march!’
“Then he remembered something Tom, the farmhand, had once shouted, so he shouted it:
“‘Down with the rebels! We’ll eat them alive! Forward!’
“You should have heard the soldiers shout. They cheered and shouted and called, ‘Eat ’em alive!’ and down the road went the whole army, with Mick leading them.
“He did not mind the way he bounced on the horse; he didn’t mind anything, excepting that he was a real soldier and commanding the most wonderful army. On and on the army marched, singing ‘Bring the good old bugle, boys,’ and Mick sang with them. He didn’t know the words so he just shouted, but that didn’t make any difference, because everyone was making such a noise that no one could hear what he was singing. Tramp, tramp, they marched and you could hear the bugles and almost hear the cannon if you closed your eyes and made-believe. And so they came to the end of the stone wall and the General whispered to Mick:
“‘Command them to stop!’
“Mick shouted, ‘Halt!’
“Then the General jumped down from his horse and lifted Mick off and gave him a whole pocket of empty cartridges. He saluted him just as though he were a grown-up soldier and said: