"But how can I be captain?" replied Willy, ready to shout with delight. "If I'm captain, who'll beat my drum?"
"Isaac Lovejoy," was the quick reply.
That settled it, and Willy said no more. He was now leader of the company, and Fred Chase was obliged to walk behind him as first lieutenant.
But the moment Willy was promoted, and before they began to march, he "took the stump," and made a stirring speech in favor of Jock Winter.
"Now see here, boys," said he, leaning on his wooden gun, and looking around him persuasively. "'All men are born free and equal.' I s'pose you know that? It's put down so in the Declaration of Independence!"
"O, yes! Ay! Ay!"
"Well, Jock Winter was born as free and equal as any of us; he wasn't born a hunchback. But see here: wouldn't you be a hunchback yourself, s'posing your father had let you fall down stairs when you was a baby? I put it to you—now wouldn't you?"
"Ay, ay," responded the boys.
"Well; and s'pose folks made fun of you just for that; how would you like it?"
"Shouldn't like it at all."