"It is quite natural. You hear that, Tam? You would not like to go away to the wars, as your father and your uncle did, and be killed, and so grieve your poor grandparents."
"I dinna want to grieve 'em," replied Tam. "But I'd like to be a soldier and fight for the Queen."
At this answer there was more than one moistened eyelid in the little group, whereof Tam, for the time being, constituted the central figure.
After a brief pause, his interlocutor continued:
"But, my boy, there are other ways of serving the Queen than by becoming a soldier—many other ways."
That was a new aspect of things to the boy, and his eyes, when he lifted them up to meet the Lady's, contained each a large note of interrogation.
"For instance," she continued, "the Queen wants a donkey-boy now, to attend her or the children when they drive about in their little phaeton." The boy's eyes brightened, then fell.
"You think the care of a donkey beneath you?"
"Then let us shake hands," said the Prince.