After tea, the younger children also volunteered for the Front, and Uncle Bob was little Dick's horse, for of course cavalry was needed. How Uncle Bob pranced and galloped! The trumpeter nearly fell off his back, but went on blowing the trumpet all the same. Uncle Bob told him to blow it well away from the horse's ears, so Dick sat backwards. As for Baby, big brother Gerald put him on the rocking-horse, to be a rough-rider.
“The great thing is to learn to stick on,” said Gerald, “because you will find falling off is very easy. Hold the horse's nose, Nellie; it seems rather a wild one.”
At last everybody joined the army, except the cat. She sat on a chair and turned up her whiskers; for cats like peace and quietness, and there cannot be much of either when soldiers go to the Front.
Tommy's First Day at School.
“Tommy, my dear,” said the old Tabby Cat,
“Here is your pinafore, put on your hat,
And go off to school with the others at once:
We don't want our kitten to grow up a dunce.”
But Tommy was naughty, “I won't go,” he said.