"The two were inseparable; and under Reynolds' careful tutoring Sammy made rapid progress in English, though some words he never did get straight. He learned to ride, too. When the men were at drill he watched every evolution, listened to every order. He begged so hard, and seemed so anxious to learn, that I finally allowed him in the ranks, a soldier serving without hope of pay or preferment, but as gallant a soldier as ever drew rein, as you shall hear later on.
"He got on famously with the men. Of course, they guyed and chaffed him, all of which he accepted good-naturedly, so long as they kept hands off. He would permit no one to hustle him or indulge in any horse-play. One of the men attempted to manhandle him one day, when Sammy grappled with the fellow and threw him over his shoulder so violently as nearly to break the man's neck. After that they respected his edict of 'hands off.' His thirst for knowledge seemed insatiable. Like a shadow he followed Reynolds; ever his eager questions, sometimes in English, more often in Japanese, as to why or how, receiving the tall trooper's reply in kind. It was about three weeks after his arrival that Sammy had his first trouble, which came about in this wise.
"Hennessy, who was a roistering, good-natured fellow when sober, but a quarrelsome brute when in his cups, had spent the afternoon at Mexican Joe's dive, and returning to camp in the evening, was fighting drunk and hankering for trouble.
"It so happened that the tent occupied by Sammy stood at one end of the adobe building in which Hennessy bunked, and the latter, to reach his door, must pass within a few feet of the little Jap, who sat cross-legged on the ground at the open flap of his tent, tinkering at his equipment. Some evil spirit prompted the drunken Irishman to bait the Japanese, for he stopped, and with an ugly leer commanded the boy to get up and get him a cup, as he proposed to initiate all stray Orientals about the camp into the mysteries of American tanglefoot.
"'Get up, ye sawed-off haythen, and bring me the cup, before I spit and dhrown yez.'
"Sammy smiled and went on fixing his buckle.
"'Didn'tyez hear me, ye naygur? I've a mind to take on a body sarvint in me ould age, and as yure so dam purty and so smilin'-like, yez have been elected by a most overwhelmin' majority as striker to the Honorable Tim Hinnissy, and I'll start yez in proper by fillin' yez up on this,' and he swung the bottle dangerously near Sammy's head.
"Still smiling, Sammy shook his head. 'No want him, those drink; him make for me pain of the head.'
"Hennessy scowled angrily.
"'Don't want it, don't yez? Well, 'tis time ye were larnin' that whin yure boss gives ye an ordther ye are to move, and not sit squattin' like a cross-legged toad, argifying. Git up, now, or I'll kick a hole through the basement of yure pants!' and he touched the lad none too gently with the toe of his boot.