03STE SHIXiLIlTGK 
 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C. ; 
 
 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, K.C. ; 
 26, ST. GEORGES PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER, S.W. 
 
 BRIGHTON : 135, north street. 
 New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 1 0003058067 
 
 sfHdl 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/jackanapeswithilOOewin 
 
ACKANAPES 
 
v 
 
 
 mw 
 
 He caught at his own reins and spoke very loud 
 
 " Jackanapes ! It won't do. You and Lollo must go on, 
 
 P 16. 
 
 Front. 
 
(EIGHTIETH THOUSAND.) 
 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS. W.C.; 
 
 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. ', 
 26, ST. GEORGES PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER, S.W. 
 
 BRIGHTON : 135, north street. 
 New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 
 
"If I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, 
 I could lay on like a butcher, and sit like a Jackanapes, never off!" 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v., Scene 2. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, 
 
 Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay, 
 
 The midnight brought the signal sound of strife, 
 
 The morn the marshalling in arms — the day 
 
 Battle's magnificently stern array ! 
 
 The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent 
 
 The earth is covered thick with other clay, 
 
 Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, 
 
 Rider and horse : — friend, foe, — in one red burial blent 
 
 Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine : 
 Yet one would I select from that proud throng. 
 
 to thee, to thousands, of whom each 
 
 And one as all a ghastly gap did make 
 
 In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach 
 
 Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake ; 
 
 The Archangel's trump, not giory's, must awake 
 
 Those whom they thirst for. — Byron. 
 
 ^^ WO Donkeys and the 
 Geese lived on the Green, 
 and all other residents 
 of any social standing 
 lived in houses round 
 it. The houses had no 
 names. Everybody's ad- 
 dress was, " The Green," 
 but the Postman and the 
 people of the place knew 
 where each family lived. 
 As to the rest of the 
 world, what has one to 
 do with the rest of the 
 
 world, when he is safe at home on his own Goose Green ? 
 
 Moreover, if a stranger did come on any lawful business, 
 
 he might ask his way at the shop. 
 
 B 
 
 =£&{/ 
 
6 LITTLE MISS JESSAMINE. 
 
 Most of the inhabitants were long-lived, early deaths 
 (like that of the little Miss Jessamine) being exceptional ; 
 and most of the old people were proud of their age, espe- 
 cially the sexton, who would be ninety-nine come Martin- 
 mas, and whose father remembered a man who had carried 
 arrows, as a boy, for the battle of Flodden Field. The 
 Grey Goose and the big Miss Jessamine were the only 
 elderly persons who kept their ages secret. Indeed, Miss 
 Jessamine never mentioned any one's age, or recalled the 
 exact year in which anything had happened. She said 
 that she had been taught that it was bad manners to do so 
 " in a mixed assembly." 
 
 The Grey Goose also avoided dates, but this was partly 
 because her brain, though intelligent, was not mathe- 
 matical, and computation was beyond her. She never got 
 farther than " last Michaelmas," " the Michaelmas before 
 that," and " the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before 
 that." After this her head, which was small, became con- 
 fused, and she said, " Ga, ga!" and changed the subject. 
 
 But she remembered the little Miss Jessamine, the Miss 
 Jessamine with the " conspicuous " hair. Her aunt, the big 
 Miss Jessamine, said it was her only fault. The hair was 
 clean, was abundant, was glossy, but do what you would 
 with it it never looked quite like other people's. And at 
 church, after Saturday night's wash, it shone like the best 
 brass fender after a Spring cleaning. In short, it was 
 conspicuous, which does not become a young woman — 
 especially in church. 
 
 Those were worrying times altogether, and the Green 
 was used for strange purposes. A political meeting was 
 held on it with the village Cobbler in the chair, and a 
 speaker who came by stage coach from the town, where 
 they had wrecked the bakers' shops, and discussed the 
 price of bread. He came a second time, by stage, but the 
 people had heard something about him in the meanwhile. 
 
BONY AND THE BLACK CAPTAIN. J 
 
 and they did not keep him on the Green. They took him 
 to the pond and tried to make him swim, which he could 
 not do, and the whole affair was very disturbing- to all 
 quiet and peaceable fowls. After which another man 
 came, and preached sermons on the Green, and a great 
 many people went to hear him ; for those were " trying 
 times," and folk ran hither and thither for comfort. And 
 then what did they do but drill the ploughboys on the 
 Green, to get them ready to fight the French, and teach 
 them the goose-step ! However, that came to an end at 
 last, for Bony was sent to St, Helena, and the ploughboys 
 were sent back to the plough. 
 
 Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those days, espe- 
 cially the naughty children, who were kept in order during 
 the day by threats of, " Bony shall have you," and who had 
 nightmares about him in the dark. They thought he was 
 an Ogre in a cocked hat. The Grey Goose thought he 
 was a Fox, and that all the men of England were going 
 out in red coats to hunt him. It was no use to argue the 
 point, for she had a very small head, and when one idea 
 got into it there was no room for another. 
 
 Besides, the Grey Goose never saw Bony, nor did the 
 children, which rather spoilt the terror of him, so that the 
 Black Captain became more effective as a Bogy with 
 hardened offenders, The Grey Goose remembered his 
 coming to the place perfectly. What he came for she did 
 not pretend to know. It was all part and parcel of the war 
 and bad times. He was called the Black Captain, partly 
 because of himself, and partly because of his wonderful 
 black mare. Strange stories were afloat of how far and 
 how fast that mare could go, when her master's hand was 
 on her mane and he whispered in her ear. Indeed, some 
 people thought we might reckon ourselves very lucky if we 
 were not out of the frying-pan into the fire, and had not 
 got a certain well-known Gentleman of the Road to 
 
8 SOLDIERS IN PEACE 
 
 protect us against the French. But that, of course, made 
 him none the less useful to the Johnsons' Nurse, when the 
 little Miss Johnsons were naughty. 
 
 "You leave off crying this minnit, Miss Jane, or I'll 
 give you right away to that horrid wicked officer. Jemima! 
 just look out o' the windy, if you please, and see if the 
 Black Cap'n's a-coming with his horse to carry away 
 Miss Jane." 
 
 And there, sure enough, the Black Captain strode by t 
 with his sword clattering as if it did not know whose head 
 to £ut off first. But he did not call for Miss Jane that 
 time. He went on to the Green, where he came so 
 suddenly upon the eldest Master Johnson, sitting in a 
 puddle on purpose, in his new nankeen skeleton suit, that 
 the young gentleman thought judgment had overtaken 
 him at last, and abandoned himself to the howlings of 
 despair. His howls were redoubled when he was clutched 
 from behind and swung over the Black Captain's shoulder, 
 but in five minutes his tears were stanched, and he was 
 playing with the officer's accoutrements. All of which the 
 Grey Goose saw with her own eyes, and heard afterwards 
 that that bad boy had been whining to go back to the 
 Black Captain ever since, which showed how hardened he 
 was, and that nobody but Bonaparte himself could be 
 expected to do him any good. 
 
 But those were "trying times." It was bad enough 
 when the pickle of a large and respectable family cried 
 for the Black Captain; when it came to the little Miss 
 Jessamine crying for him, one felt that the sooner the 
 French landed and had done with it the better. 
 
 The big Miss Jessamine's objection to him was that he 
 was a soldier, and this prejudice was shared by all the 
 Green. "A soldier," as the speaker from the town had 
 observed, " is a bloodthirsty, unsettled sort of a rascal ; 
 that the peaceable, home-loving, bread-winning citizen can 
 
ARE LIKE CHIMNEYS IN SUMMER. 9 
 
 never conscientiously look on as a brother, till he has 
 beaten his sword into a ploughshare, and his spear into a 
 pruninghook." 
 
 On the other hand there was some truth in what the 
 Postman (an old soldier) said in reply; that the sword has 
 to cut a way for us out of many a scrape into which our 
 bread-winners get us when they drive their ploughshares 
 into fallows that don't belong to them. Indeed, whilst our 
 most peaceful citizens were prosperous chiefly by means of 
 cotton, of sugar, and of the rise and fall of the money- 
 market (not to speak of such saleable matters as opium, 
 firearms, and "black ivory"), disturbances were apt to 
 arise in India, Africa, and other outlandish parts, where the 
 fathers of our domestic race were making fortunes for their 
 families. And, for that matter, even on the Green, we did 
 not wish the military to leave us in the lurch, so long as 
 there was any fear that the French were coming.* 
 
 To let the Black Captain have little Miss Jessamine^ 
 however, was another matter. Her Aunt would not hear 
 of it ; and then, to crown all, it appeared that the Captain's 
 father did not think the young lady good enough for his 
 son. Never was any affair more clearly brought to a 
 conclusion. 
 
 But those were " trying times ; " and one moonlight 
 night, when the Grey Goose was sound asleep upon one 
 leg, the Green was rudely shaken under her by the thud 
 of a horse's feet. "Ga, ga!" said she, putting down the 
 other leg, and running away. 
 
 By the time she returned to her place not a thing was 
 
 * " The political men declare war, and generally for commercial interests ; but when 
 the nation is thus embroiled with its neighbours the soldier . . . draws the sword, at- the 
 command of his country. . . . One word as to thy comparison of military and commercial! 
 persons. What manner of men be they who have supplied the Caffres with the firearms and 
 • munition to maintain their savage and deplorable wars? Assuredly they are not military , 
 , . Cease then, if thou would'st be counted among the just, to vilify soldiers." — W. Napier, 
 laeuL -General, November, 1851 
 
10 
 
 SHE'S O'ER THE BORDER AND AWA 1 . — 
 
 to be seen or heard. The horse had passed like a shot. 
 But next day, there was hurrying and skurrying and 
 cackling at a very early hour, all about the white house 
 with the black beams, where Miss Jessamine lived. And 
 when the sun was so low, and the shadows so long on the 
 grass that the Grey Goose felt ready to run away at the 
 sight of her own neck, little Miss Jane Johnson, and her 
 " particular friend " Clarinda, sat under the big oak-tree on 
 the Green, and Jane pinched Clarinda's little finger till she 
 
 -.*V 
 
 found that she could keep a secret, and then she told her 
 in confidence that she had heard from Nurse and Jemima 
 that Miss Jessamine's niece had been a very naughty girl, 
 and that that horrid wicked officer had come for her on his 
 black horse, and carried her right away. 
 
 " Will she never come back ? " asked Clarinda. 
 
 'Oh, no!" said Jane decidedly. "Bony never brings 
 people back." 
 
BLACKBERRIES AND BRYONY-WREATHS. II 
 
 " Not never no more ? " sobbed Clarinda, for she was 
 weak-minded, and could not bear to think that Bony never 
 never let naughty people go home again. 
 
 Next day Jane had heard more. 
 
 " He has taken her to a Green." 
 
 " A Goose Green ? " asked Clarinda. 
 
 " No. A Gretna Green. Don't ask so many questions, 
 child," said Jane ; who, having no more to tell, gave herself 
 airs. 
 
 Jane was wrong on one point. Miss Jessamine's niece 
 did come back, and she and her husband were forgiven. 
 The Grey Goose remembered it well, it was Michaelmas- 
 tide, the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before the 
 Michaelmas — but, ga, ga! What does the date matter? 
 It was autumn, harvest-time, and everybody was so busy 
 prophesying and praying about the crops, that the young 
 couple wandered through the lanes, and got blackberries 
 for Miss Jessamine's celebrated crab and blackberry jam, 
 and made guys of themselves with bryony-wreaths, and 
 not a soul troubled his head about them, except the 
 children, and the Postman; The children dogged the 
 Black Captain's footsteps (his bubble reputation as an 
 Ogre having burst), clamouring for a ride on the black 
 mare. And the Postman would go somewhat out of his 
 postal way to catch the Captain's dark eye, and show that 
 he had not forgotten how to salute an officer. 
 
 But they were " trying times." One afternoon the 
 black mare was stepping gently up and down the grass, 
 with her head at her master's shoulder, and as many 
 children crowded on to her silky back as if she had been 
 an elephant in a menagerie ; and the next afternoon she 
 carried him away, sword and sabre-tache clattering war- 
 music at her side, and the old Postman waiting for them, 
 rigid with salutation, at the four cross roads. 
 
 War and bad times! It was a hard winter, and the 
 
12 
 
 ILL NEWS RIDES POST. 
 
 big Miss Jessamine and the little Miss Jessamine (but she 
 was Mrs. Black-Gaptain now), lived very economically that 
 they might help their poorer neighbours. They neither 
 entertained nor went into company, but the young lady 
 
 W^^i) Ail 
 
 always went up the village as far as the George and 
 Dragon, for air and exercise, when the London Mail* 
 came in. 
 
 * The Mail Coach it was that distributed over the face of the land, like the opening 
 of apocalyptic vials, the heart-shaking news of Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, ol 
 Waterloo. . . . The grandest chapter of our experience, within-the whole Mail Coacb 
 service, was on those occasions when we went down from London with the news of Victory 
 Five years of life it was worth paying down for the privilege of aji outside place. 
 
 De Quincsv. 
 
IT WAS A FAMOUS VICTORY. 1 3 
 
 One day (it was a day in the following June) it came in 
 earlier than usual, and the young lady was not there to 
 meet it. 
 
 But a crowd soon gathered round the George and 
 Dragon, gaping to see the Mail Coach dressed with flowers 
 and oak-leaves, and the guard wearing a laurel-wreath over 
 and above his royal livery. The ribbons that decked the 
 horses were stained and flecked with the warmth and foam 
 of the pace at which they had come, for they had pressed 
 oh with the news of Victory. 
 
 Miss Jessamine was sitting with her niece under the 
 oak-tree on the Green, when the Postman put a newspaper 
 silently into her hand. Her niece turned quickly — 
 
 "Is there news ?" 
 
 " Don't agitate yourself, my dear," said her aunt. " I 
 will read it aloud, and then we can enjoy it together ; a far 
 more comfortable method, my love, than when you go up 
 the village, and come home out of breath, having snatched 
 half the news as you run." 
 
 " I am all attention, dear aunt," said the little lady, 
 clasping her hands tightly on her lap. 
 
 Then Miss Jessamine read aloud — she was proud of 
 
 her reading — and the old soldier stood at attention behind 
 
 her, with such a blending of pride and pity on his face as it 
 
 was strange to see : — 
 
 " Downing Street, 
 
 June 22, 1815, 1 A.M." 
 
 " That's one in the morning," gasped the Postman ; 
 "beg your pardon, mum." 
 
 But though he apologised, he could not refrain from 
 echoing here and there a weighty word. " Glorious 
 victory," — "Two hundred pieces of artillery," — immense 
 quantity of ammunition," — and so forth. 
 
 " The loss of the British Army upon this occasion has unfortunate!)' been 
 most severe. It had not been possible to make out a return of the killed and 
 wounded when Major Percy left headquarters. The names of the officers 
 killed and wounded, as far as they can be collected, are annexed. 
 
 " I have the honour " 
 
14 FIERCE WAR AND FAITHFUL LOVE. 
 
 11 The list, aunt ! Read the list !" 
 
 " My love — my darling — let us go in and— — " 
 
 "No. Now! now!" 
 
 To one thing the supremely afflicted are entitled in 
 their sorrow — to be obeyed — and yet it is the last kindness 
 that people commonly will do them. But Miss Jessamine 
 did. Steadying her voice, as best she might, she read on, 
 and the old soldier stood bare-headed to hear that first 
 Roll of the Dead at Waterloo, which began with the Duke 
 of Brunswick, and ended with Ensign Brown.* Five-and 
 thirty British Captains fell asleep that day on the Bed oi 
 Honour, and the Black Captain slept among them. 
 
 **A;' *i^ >!' *Jf* -~l* 
 
 ^h rj* *y% *y* #^ 
 
 There are killed and wounded by war, of whom no 
 returns reach Downing Street. 
 
 Three days later, the Captain's wife had joined him, 
 and Miss Jessamine was kneeling by the cradle of their 
 orphan son, a purple-red morsel of humanity, with con- 
 spicuously golden hair. 
 
 " Will he live, Doctor ?" 
 
 " Live ? God bless my soul, ma'am ! Look at him ! 
 The young Jackanapes !" 
 
 * " Brunswick's fated chieftain" fell at Quatre Bras, the day before Waterloo, but this 
 first (very imperfect) list, as it appeared in the newspapers of the day, did begin with his 
 name, and end with that of an Ensign Brown 
 
*5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 And he wandered away and away 
 With Nature, the dear old Nurse. 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 -HE Grey Goose remembered quite well the 
 year that Jackanapes began to walk, for 
 it was the year that the speckled hen 
 for the first time in all her motherly 
 life got out of patience when she was 
 sitting. She had been rather proud 
 of the eggs — they were unusually 
 large — but she never felt quite com- 
 fortable on them ; and whether it 
 was because she used to get cramp, 
 and go off the nest, or because the 
 season was bad, or what, she never could tell, but every 
 ^gg was addled but one, and the one that did hatch gave 
 her more trouble than any chick she had ever reared. 
 
 It was a fine, downy, bright yellow little thing, but it 
 had a monstrous big nose and feet, and such an ungainly 
 walk as she knew no other instance of in her well-bred 
 and high-stepping family. And as to behaviour, it was 
 not that it was either quarrelsome or moping, but simply 
 unlike the rest. When the other chicks hopped and 
 cheeped on the Green about their mother's feet, this 
 solitary yellow brat went waddling off on its own responsi- 
 bility, and do or cluck what the speckled hen would, it 
 went to play in the pond. 
 
 It was off one day as usual, and the hen was fussing 
 
i6 
 
 THE YELLOW THING. 
 
 and fuming after it, when the Postman, going to deliver a 
 letter at Miss Jessamine's door, was nearly knocked ovesr 
 by the good lady herself, who, bursting out of the house 
 with her cap just off and her bonnet just not on, fell into 
 his arms, crying — 
 
 "Baby! Baby! Jackanapes! Jackanapes!" 
 
 If the Postman loved anything on earth, he loved the 
 
 Captain's yellowed -haired child, so propping Miss Jessa 
 mine against her own door-post, he followed the direction 
 of her trembling fingers and made for the Green. 
 
 Jackanapes had had the start of the Postman by nearly 
 ten minutes. The world — the round green world with an 
 oak' tree on it — was just becoming very interesting to him. 
 He had tried, vigorously but ineffectually, to mount a 
 
THE OTHER YELLOW THING. 1 7 
 
 passing pig the last time he was taken out walking ; but 
 then he was encumbered with a nurse. Now he was his 
 own master, and might, by courage and energy, become 
 the master of that delightful, downy, dumpty, yellow thing, 
 that was bobbing along over the green grass in front of 
 him. Forward ! Charge ! He aimed well, and grabbed 
 it, but only to feel the delicious downiness and dumpi- 
 ness slipping through his fingers as he fell upon his face. 
 " Ouawk !" said the yellow thing, and wobbled off sideways. 
 It was this oblique movement that enabled Jackanapes to 
 come up with it, for it was bound for the Pond, and there- 
 fore obliged to come back into line. He failed again from 
 top-heaviness, and his prey escaped sideways as before, 
 and, as before, lost ground in getting back to the direct 
 road to the Pond. 
 
 And at the Pond the Postman found them both, one 
 yellow thing rocking safely on the ripples that lie beyond 
 duck-weed, and the other washing his draggled frock with 
 tears, because he too had tried to sit upon the Pond, and 
 it wouldn't hold him. 
 
iS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 , . . If studious, copie fair what time hath blurred, 
 Redeem truth from his jawes ; if souldier, 
 Chase brave employments with a naked sword 
 Throughout the world. Fool not ; for all may have, 
 If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave. 
 
 In brief, acquit thee bravely : play the man. 
 Look not on pleasures as they come, but go. 
 Defer not the least vertue : life's poore span 
 Make not an ell, by trifling in thy woe. 
 If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains. 
 If well : the pain doth fade, the joy remains. 
 
 George Herbert, 
 
 OUNG Mrs. Johnson, 
 who was a mother of 
 "■many, hardly knew 
 which to pity more ; 
 Miss Jessamine for 
 having her little ways 
 and her antimacassars 
 rumpled by a young Jackanapes ; or the boy himself, for 
 being brought up by an old maid. 
 
 Oddly enough, she would probably have pitied neither, 
 had Jackanapes been a girl. (One is so apt to think that 
 what works smoothest works to the highest ends, having 
 no patience for the results of friction.) That Father in 
 God, who bade the young men to be pure, and the maidens 
 brave, greatly disturbed a member of his congregation, 
 
WHAT ARE LITTLE BOYS MADE OF? 19 
 
 who thought that the great preacher had made a slip of 
 the tongue. 
 
 "That the girls should have purity, and the boys 
 courage, is what you would say, good Father ? " 
 
 " Nature has done that," was the reply ; " I meant what 
 I said." 
 
 In good sooth, a young maid is all the better for learning 
 some robuster virtues than maidenliness and not to move 
 the antimacassars. And the robuster virtues require some 
 fresh air and freedom. As, on the other hand, Jackanapes 
 (who had a boy's full share of the little beast and the 
 young monkey in his natural composition) was none the 
 worse, at his tender years, for learning some maidenliness 
 ■ — so far as maidenliness means decency, pity, unselfishness 
 and pretty behaviour. 
 
 And it is due to him to say that he was an obedient 
 boy, and a boy whose word could be depended on, long 
 before his grandfather the General came to live at the 
 Green. 
 
 He was obedient; that is he did what his great aunt 
 told him. But — oh dear ! oh dear ! — the pranks he played, 
 which it had never entered into her head to forbid ! 
 
 It was when he had just been put into skeletons 
 (frocks never suited him) that he became very friendly 
 with Master Tony Johnson, a younger brother of the 
 young gentleman who sat in the puddle on purpose. Tony 
 was not enterprising, and Jackanapes led him by the nose. 
 One summer's evening they were out late, and Miss Jessa- 
 mine was becoming anxious, when Jackanapes presented 
 himself with a ghastly face all besmirched with tears, He 
 was unusually subdued. 
 
 " I'm afraid," he sobbed ; " if you please, I'm very much 
 afraid that Tony Johnson's dying in the churchyard." 
 
 Miss Jessamine was just beginning to be distracted, 
 when she smelt Jackanapes. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 A DELICATE QUESTION. 
 
 " You naughty, naughty boys ! Do you mean to tell 
 me that you've been smoking ? " 
 
 " Not pipes," urged Jackanapes ; " upon my honour, 
 Aunty, not pipes. Only segars like Mr. Johnson's ! and 
 only made of brown paper with a very very little tobacco 
 from the shop inside them." 
 
 Whereupon, Miss Jessamine sent a servant to the 
 churchyard, who found Tony Johnson lying on a tomb- 
 stone, very sick, and having ceased to entertain any hopes 
 of his own recovery. 
 
 If it could be possible that any " unpleasantness " could 
 arise between two such amiable neighbours as Miss Jessa- 
 mine and Mrs. Johnson — and if the still more incredible 
 paradox can be that ladies may differ over a point on 
 which they are agreed — that point was the admitted fact 
 that Tony Johnson was " delicate," and the difference lay 
 chiefly in this : Mrs. Johnson said that Tony was delicate — 
 meaning that he was more finely strung, more sensitive, a 
 properer subject for pampering and petting than Jacka- 
 napes, and that, consequently, Jackanapes was to blame 
 for leading Tony into scrapes which resulted in his being 
 chilled, frightened, or (most frequently) sick. But when 
 Miss Jessamine said that Tony Johnson was delicate, she 
 meant that he was more puling, less manly, and less 
 healthily brought up than Jackanapes, who, when they got 
 into mischief together, was certainly not to blame because 
 his friend could not get wet, sit a kicking donkey, ride in 
 the giddy-go-round, bear the noise of a cracker, or smoke 
 brown paper with impunity, as he could. 
 
 Not that there was ever the slightest quarrel between 
 the ladies. It never even came near it, except the day 
 after Tony had been so very sick with riding Bucephalus 
 in the giddy-go-round. Mrs. Johnson had explained to 
 Miss Jessamine that the reason Tony was so easily upset, 
 was the unusual sensitiveness (as a doctor had explained it 
 
THE FAIR. 21 
 
 to her) of the nervous centres in her family — " Fiddlestick!" 
 So Mrs. Johnson understood Miss Jessamine to say, but it 
 appeared that she only said " Treaclestick!" which is quite 
 another thing, and of which Tony was undoubtedly fond. 
 
 It was at the Fair that Tony was made ill by riding on 
 Bucephalus. Once a year the Goose Green became the 
 scene of a carnival. First of all, carts and caravans were 
 rumbling up all along, day and night. Jackanapes could 
 hear them as he lay in bed, and could hardly sleep for 
 speculating what booths and whirligigs he should find 
 fairly established, when he and his dog Spitfire went out 
 after breakfast. As a matter of fact, he seldom had to 
 wait so long for news of the Fair. The Postman knew the 
 window out of which Jackanapes' yellow head would come, 
 and was ready with his report. 
 
 " Royal Theayter, Master Jackanapes, in the old place, 
 but be careful o' them seats, sir; they're rickettier than 
 ever. Two sweets and a ginger-beer under the oak-tree, 
 and the Flying Boats is just a-coming along the road." 
 
 No doubt it was partly because he had already suffered 
 severely in the Flying Boats, that Tony collapsed so 
 quickly in the giddy-go-round. He only mounted Buce- 
 phalus (who was spotted, and had no tail,) because Jacka- 
 napes urged him, and held out the ingenious hope that the 
 round-and-round feeling would very likely cure the up-and- 
 down sensation. It did not, however, and Tony tumbled 
 off during the first revolution. 
 
 Jackanapes was not absolutely free from qualms, but 
 having once mounted the Black Prince, he stuck to him as 
 a horseman should. During the first round he waved his 
 hat, and observed with some concern that the Black Prince 
 had lost an ear since last Fair ; at the second, he looked a 
 little pale, but sat upright, though somewhat unnecessarily 
 rigid ; at the third round he shut his eyes. During the 
 fourth his hat fell off, and he clasped his horse's neck, By 
 
22 HOW TO RUN AWAY. 
 
 the fifth he had laid his yellow head against the Black 
 Prince's mane, and so clung anyhow till the hobby-horses 
 stopped, when the proprietor assisted him to alight, and he 
 sat down rather suddenly and said he had enjoyed it very 
 much. 
 
 The Grey Goose always ran away at the first approach 
 ot the caravans, and never came back to the Green till 
 there was nothing left of the Fair but footmarks and 
 oyster-shells. Running away was her pet principle ; the 
 only system, she maintained, by which you can live long 
 and easily, and lose nothing. If you run away when you 
 see danger, you can come back when all is safe. Run 
 quickly, return slowly, hold your head high, and gabble as 
 loud as you can, and you'll preserve the respect of the 
 Goose Green to a peaceful old age. Why should you 
 struggle and get hurt, if you can lower your head and 
 swerve, and not lose a feather ? Why in the world should 
 any one spoil the pleasure of life, or risk his skin, if he can 
 help it ? 
 
 '"What's the use?' 
 Said the Goose." 
 
HOW TO STICK ON. 2J 
 
 Before answering which one might have to consider what 
 world — which life — and whether his skin were a goose- 
 skin ; but the Grey Goose's head would never have held 
 all that. 
 
 Grass soon grows over footprints, and the village chil- 
 dren took the oyster-shells to trim their gardens wkh ; 
 but the year after Tony rode Bucephalus there lingered 
 another relic of Fair-time, in which Jackanapes was deeply 
 interested, " The Green " proper was originally only part 
 of a straggling common, which in its turn merged into 
 some wilder waste land where gipsies sometimes squatted 
 if the authorities would allow them, especially after the 
 annual Fair. And it was after the Fair that Jackanapes, 
 out rambling by himself, was knocked over by the Gipsy's 
 son riding the Gipsy's red-haired pony at break-neck pace 
 across the common. 
 
 Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none the worse, 
 except for being heels over head in love with the red-haired 
 pony. What a rate he went at ! How he spurned the 
 ground with his nimble feet ! How his red coat shone in 
 the sunshine ! And what bright eyes peeped out of his 
 dark forelock as it was blown by the wind ! 
 
 The Gipsy boy had had a fright, and he was willing 
 enough to reward Jackanapes for not having been hurt, by 
 consenting to let him have a ride. 
 
 " Do you mean to kill the little fine gentleman, and 
 swing us all on the gibbet, you rascal ? " screamed the 
 Gipsy-mother, who came up just as Jackanapes and the 
 pony set off. 
 
 n He would get on," replied her son. " It'll not kill him. 
 He'll fall on his yellow head, and it's as tough as a cocoa- 
 nut." 
 
 But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to the red- 
 haired pony as he had stuck to the hobby-horse ; but oh, 
 how different the delight of this wild gallop with flesh and 
 
24 THE GIPSY-FATHER. 
 
 blood ! Just as his legs were beginning to feel as if he did 
 not feel them, the Gipsy boy cried " L'ollo ! " Round went 
 the pony so unceremoniously, that, with as little ceremony, 
 Jackanapes clung to his neck, and he did not properly re- 
 cover himself before Lollo stopped with a jerk at the place 
 where they had started. 
 
 " Is his name Lollo ? " asked Jackanapes, his hand 
 lingering in the wiry mane. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " What does Lollo mean ? " 
 
 " Red." 
 
 " Is Lollo your pony ? " 
 
 "No. My father's." And the Gipsy boy led Lollo 
 away. 
 
 At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole away again 
 to the common. This time he saw the Gipsy-father, 
 smoking a dirty pipe. 
 
 " Lollo is your pony, isn't he ? " said Jackanapes, 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " He's a very nice one." 
 
 " He's a racer." 
 
 " You don't want to sell him, do you ? " 
 
 " Fifteen pounds/' said the Gipsy-father ; and Jacka- 
 napes sighed and went home again. That very afternoon 
 he and Tony rode the two donkeys, and Tony managed to 
 get thrown, and even Jackanapes' donkey kicked. But it 
 was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic swiftness and the 
 dainty mischief of the red-haired pony. 
 
 A few days later Miss Jessamine spoke very seriously 
 to Jackanapes, She was a good deal agitated as she told 
 him that his grandfather the General was coming to the 
 Green, and that he must be on his very best behaviour 
 during the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off 
 calling him Jackanapes and to get used to his baptismal 
 name of Theodore before the day after to-morrow (when 
 
THE GENERAL, 25 
 
 the General was due), it would have been satisfactory. 
 But Miss Jessamine feared it would be impossible in prac- 
 tice, and she had scruples about it on principle. It would 
 not seem quite truthful, although she had always most 
 fully intended that he should be called Theodore when he 
 had outgrown the ridiculous appropriateness of his nick- 
 name. The fact was that he had not outgrown it, but he 
 must take care to remember who was meant when his 
 grandfather said Theodore. 
 
 Indeed for that matter he must take care all along. 
 
 " You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes," said Miss 
 Jessamine. 
 
 11 Yes, aunt," said Jackanapes, thinking of the hobby- 
 horses. 
 
 " You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank God, I can 
 tell your grandfather that. An obedient boy, an honour- 
 able boy, and a kind-hearted boy. But you are — in short, 
 you are a Boy, Jackanapes. And I hope " — added Miss 
 Jessamine, desperate with the results of experience — "that 
 the General knows that Boys will be Boys." 
 
 What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes promised 
 to guard against. He was to keep his clothes and his 
 hands clean, to look over his catechism, not to put sticky 
 things in his pockets, to keep that hair of his smooth — 
 (" It's the wind that blows it, Aunty," said Jackanapes — 
 " I'll send by the coach for some bear's-grease," said Miss 
 Jessamine, tying a knot in her pocket-handkerchief) — not 
 to burst in- at the parlour door, not to talk at the top 
 of his voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill, and to sit 
 quite quiet during the sermon, to be sure to say " sir " to 
 the General, to be careful about rubbing his shoes on the 
 door-mat, and to bring his lesson-books to his aunt at once 
 that she might iron down the dogs' ears. The General 
 arrived, and for the first day all went well, except that 
 Jackanapes' hair was as wild as usual, for the hairdresser 
 
26 
 
 TWO ARE COMPANY. 
 
 had no bear's grease left. He began to feel more at ease 
 with his grandfather, and disposed to talk confidentially 
 with him, as he did with the Postman, All that the 
 General felt it would take too long to tell, but the result 
 was the same. He was disposed to talk confidentially 
 with Jackanapes. 
 
 " Mons'ous pretty, place this," he said, looking out of 
 
 the lattice on to the Green, where the grass was vivid with 
 sunset, and the shadows were long and peaceful. 
 
 "You should see it in Fair-week, sir," said Jackanapes, 
 shaking his yellow mop, and leaning back in his one of the 
 two Chippendale arm-chairs in which they sat. 
 
 "A fine time that, eh?" said the General, with a twinkle 
 in his left eye. (The other was glass.) 
 
HE IS WELL PAID THAT IS WELL SATISFIED. 2J 
 
 Jackanapes shook his hair once more. " I enjoyed 
 this last one the best of all," he said. " I'd so much 
 money." 
 
 " By George, it's not a common complaint in these bad 
 times. How much had ye ?" 
 
 " I'd two shillings. A new shilling Aunty gave me, 
 and elevenpence I had saved up, and a penny from the 
 Postman — sir /" added Jackanapes with a jerk, having for- 
 gotten it. - 
 
 "And how did ye spend it — sir?" inquired the General. 
 
 Jackanapes spread his ten fingers on the arms of his 
 chair, and shut his eyes that he might count the more 
 conscientiously. 
 
 "Watch-stand for Aunty, threepence. Trumpet for 
 myself, twopence, that's fivepence. Ginger-nuts for Tony, 
 twopence, and a mug with a Grenadier on for the Postman, 
 fourpence, that's elevenpence. Shooting-gallery a penny, 
 that's a shilling. Giddy-go-round, a penny, that's one and a 
 penny. Treating Tony, one and twopence. Flying Boats 
 (Tony paid for himself), a penny, one and threepence. 
 Shooting-gallery again, one and fourpence ; Fat Woman a 
 penny, one and fivepence. Giddy -go-round again, one and 
 sixpence. Shooting-gallery, one and sevenpence. Treating 
 Tony, and then he wouldn't shoot, so I did, one and eight- 
 pence. Living Skeleton, a penny — no, Tony treated me, 
 the Living Skeleton doesn't count. Skittles, a penny, one 
 and ninepence. Mermaid (but when we got inside she was 
 dead), a penny, one and tenpence. Theatre, a penny 
 (Priscilla Partington, or the Green Lane Murder. A beauti- 
 ful young lady, sir, with pink cheeks and a real pistol), 
 that's one and elevenpence. Ginger beer, a penny (I was 
 so thirsty!) two shillings. And then the Shooting-gallery 
 man gave me a turn for nothing, because, he said, I was a 
 real gentleman, and spent my money like a man." 
 
 " So you do, sir, so you do !" cried the General. " Why. 
 
28 LOLLO. 
 
 sir, you spend it like a prince. And now I suppose you've 
 not got a penny in your pocket ?" 
 
 "Yes I have," said Jackanapes. " Two pennies. They 
 are saving up." And Jackanapes jingled them with his. 
 hand. - 
 
 "You don't want money except at fair-times, I sup- 
 pose ?" said the General. 
 
 Jackanapes shook his mop. 
 
 " If I could have as much as I want, I should know 
 what to buy," said he. 
 
 " And how much do you want, if you could get it ?" 
 
 "Wait a minute, sir, till I think what twopence from 
 fifteen pounds leaves. Two from nothing you can't, but 
 borrow twelve. Two from twelve, ten, and carry one. 
 Please remember ten, sir, when I ask you-. One from 
 nothing you can't, borrow twenty. One from twenty, 
 nineteen, and carry one. One from fifteen, fourteen. 
 Fourteen pounds nineteen and — what did I tell you to 
 remember ?" 
 
 " Ten," said the General. 
 
 " Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and tenpence then, 
 is what I want," said Jackanapes. 
 
 " Bless my soul, what for ?" 
 
 "To buy Lollo with. Lollo means red, sir. The 
 Gipsy's red-haired pony, sir. Oh, he is beautiful ! You 
 should see his coat in the sunshine ! You should see his 
 mane ! You should see his tail ! Such little feet, sir, and 
 they go like lightning ! Such a dear face, too, and eyes 
 like a mouse ! But he's a racer, and the Gipsy wants 
 fifteen pounds for him." 
 
 " If he's a racer, you couldn't ride him. Could you ?" 
 
 " No — o, sir, but I can stick to him. I did the other 
 day." 
 
 " You did, did you ? Well, I'm fond of riding myself, 
 and if the beast is as good as you say, he might suit me." 
 
A RIDE FOR A RED-HAIRED PONY. 20, 
 
 " You're too tall for Lollo, I think/' said Jackanapes, 
 measuring his grandfather with his eye. 
 
 "I can double up my legs, I suppose. We'll have a 
 look at him to-morrow," 
 
 " Don't you weigh a good deal ? " asked Jackanapes. 
 
 " Chiefly waistcoats," said the General, slapping the 
 breast of his military frock-coat. " We'll have the little 
 racer on the Green the first thing in the morning. Glad 
 you mentioned it, grandson. Glad you mentioned it." 
 
 The General was as good as his word. Next morning 
 the Gipsy and Lollo, Miss Jessamine, Jackanapes and his 
 grandfather and his dog Spitfire, were all gathered at one 
 end of the Green in a group, which so aroused the innocent 
 curiosity of Mrs. Johnson, as she saw it from one of her 
 upper windows, that she and the children took their early 
 promenade rather earlier than usual. The General talked 
 to the Gipsy, and Jackanapes fondled Lollo's mane, and 
 did not know whether he should be more glad or miserable 
 if his grandfather bought him. 
 
 " Jackanapes ! " 
 
 "Yes, sir!" 
 
 " I've bought Lollo, but I believe you were right. He 
 hardly stands high enough for me. If you can ride him to 
 the other end of the Green, I'll give him to you." 
 
 How Jackanapes tumbled on to Lollo's back he never 
 knew. He had just gathered up the reins when the Gipsy- 
 father took him by the arm. 
 
 " If you want to make Lollo go fast, my little gentle- 
 man " 
 
 " I can make him go ! " said Jackanapes, and drawing 
 from his pocket the trumpet he had bought in the fair, he 
 blew a blast both loud and shrill. 
 
 Away went Lollo, and away went Jackanapes' hat. 
 His golden hair flew out, an aureole from which his cheeks 
 shone red and distended with trumpeting. Away went 
 
30 
 
 IT IS A GALLANT CHILD. 
 
 Spitfire, mad with the rapture of the race, and the wh»d in 
 his silky ears. Away went the geese, the cocks, the hens, 
 and the whole family of Johnson. Lucy clung to her 
 mamma, Jane saved Emily by the gathers of her gown, 
 and Tony saved himself by a somersault. 
 
 The Grey Goose was just returning when Jackanapes 
 and Lollo rode back, Spitfire panting behind. 
 
 "Good, my little gentleman, good!" said the Gipsy. 
 " You were born to the saddle. You've the fiat thigh, the 
 
 strong knee, the wiry back, and the light caressing hand, 
 all you want is to learn the whisper. Come here !" 
 
 " What was that dirty fellow talking about, grandson ?" 
 asked the General. 
 
 " I can't tell you, sir. It's a secret." 
 
 They were sitting in the window again, in the two 
 Chippendale arm-chairs, the General devouring every line 
 of his grandson's face, with strange spasms crossing his 
 
 own 
 
ONE THAT MAKES OLD HEARTS FRESH. 31 
 
 " You must love your aunt very much, Jackanapes ? " 
 
 " I do, sir," said Jackanapes warmly. 
 
 " And whom do you love next best to your aunt ? " 
 
 The ties of blood were pressing very strongly on the 
 General himself, and perhaps he thought of Lollo. But 
 Love is not bought in a day, even with fourteen pounds 
 nineteen shillings and tenpence. Jackanapes answered 
 quite readily, " The Postman." 
 
 " Why the Postman ? " 
 
 " He knew my father," said Jackanapes, " and he tells 
 me about him, and about his black mare. My father was 
 a soldier, a brave soldier. He died at Waterloo, When I 
 grow up I want to be a soldier too." 
 
 " So you shall, my boy. So you shall." 
 
 " Thank you, grandfather. Aunty doesn't want me to 
 be a soldier for fear of being killed. 
 
 " Bless my life ! Would she have you get into a feather- 
 bed and stay there ? Why, you might be killed by a 
 thunderbolt, if you were a butter-merchant ! " 
 
 " So I might. I shall tell her so. What a funny fellow 
 you are, sir ! I say, do you think my father knew the 
 Gipsy's secret ? The Postman says he used to whisper to 
 his black mare." 
 
 " Your father was taught to ride as a child, by one of 
 those horsemen of the East who swoop and dart and wheel 
 about a plain like swallows in autumn. Grandson ! Love 
 me a little too. I can tell you more about your father 
 than the Postman can." 
 
 " I do love you," said Jackanapes. " Before you came I 
 was frightened. I'd no notion you were so nice." 
 
 " Love me always, boy, whatever I do or leave undone. 
 And — GOD help me — whatever you do or leave undone, 
 I'll love you ! There shall never be a cloud between us for 
 a day ; no, sir, not for an hour. We're imperfect enough, 
 all of us, we needn't be so bitter; and life is uncertain 
 
5 2 love: and do what thou wilt! 
 
 enough at its safest, we needn't waste its opportunities, 
 Look at me ! Here sit I, after a dozen battles and some 
 of the worst climates in the world, and by yonder lych 
 gate lies your mother, who didn't move five miles, I sup- 
 pose, from your aunt's apron-strings, — dead in her teens ; 
 my golden-haired daughter, whom I never saw." 
 
 Jackanapes was terribly troubled. 
 
 " Don't cry, grandfather," he pleaded, his own blue eyes 
 round with tears. " I will love you very much, and I will 
 try to be very good. But I should like to be a soldier." 
 
 " You shall, my boy, you shall. You've more claims 
 for a commission than you know of. Cavalry, I suppose; 
 eh; ye young Jackanapes ? Well, well ; if you live to be 
 an honour to your country, this old heart shall grow young 
 again with pride for you ; and if you die in the service of 
 your country — God bless me, it can but break for ye ! " 
 
 And beating the region which he said was all waist- 
 coats, as if they stifled him, the old man got up and strode 
 out on to the Green. 
 
33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Greater love hath no man than this, that a m?.n lay down his life for 
 his friends."— John xv. 13. 
 
 WENTY and odd years later the Grey 
 
 Goose was still alive, and in full possession 
 
 of her faculties, such as they were. She 
 
 lived slowly and carefully, and she lived long. So did 
 
 Miss Jessamine; but the General was dead. 
 
 He had lived on the Green for many years, during 
 which he and the Postman saluted each other with a 
 punctiliousness that it almost drilled one to witness 
 He would have completely spoiled Jackanapes if Miss 
 
 D 
 
34 ON ACTIVE SERVICE.- 
 
 Jessamine's conscience would have let him ; otherwise he 
 somewhat dragooned his neighbours, and was as positive 
 about parish matters as a ratepayer about the army. A 
 stormy-tempered, tender-hearted soldier, irritable with the 
 suffering of wounds of which he never spoke, whom all the 
 village followed to his grave with tears. 
 
 The General's death was a great shock to Miss 
 Jessamine, and her nephew stayed with her for some little 
 time after the funeral. - Then he was obliged to join his 
 regiment, which was ordered abroad. 
 
 One effect of the conquest which the General had 
 gained over the affections of the village, was a considerable 
 abatement of the popular prejudice against " the military." 
 Indeed the village was now somewhat importantly repre- 
 sented in the army. There was the General himself, and 
 the Postman, and the Black Captain's tablet in the church, 
 and Jackanapes, and Tony Johnson, and a Trumpeter. 
 
 Tony Johnson had no more natural taste for fighting 
 than for riding, but he was as devoted as ever to 
 Jackanapes, and that was how it come about that Mr. 
 Johnson bought him a commission in the same cavalry 
 regiment that the General's grandson (whose commission 
 had been given him by the Iron Duke) was in, and that 
 he was quite content to be the butt of the mess where 
 Jackanapes was the hero ; and that when Jackanapes wrote 
 home to Miss Jessamine, Tony wrote with the same 
 purpose to his mother ; namely, to demand her congratula- 
 tions that they were on active service at last, and were 
 ordered to the front. And he added a postscript to the 
 effect that she could have no idea how popular Jackanapes 
 was, nor how splendidly he rode the wonderful red charger, 
 whom he had named after his old friend Lollo. 
 
 *«A» vl> >1* -J-* *&» 
 
 *^% *"T* *^> ^% *T* 
 
 "Sound Retire!" 
 
 A Boy Trumpeter, grave with the weight of responsi- 
 
THE BOY TRUMPETER. 
 
 35 
 
 bilities and accoutrements beyond his years, and stained, 
 so that his own mother would not have known him, with 
 the sweat and dust of battle, did as he was bid ; and then 
 pushing his trumpet pettishly aside, adjusted his weary 
 legs for the hundredth time to the horse which was a world 
 too big for him, and muttering, "'Taint a pretty tune," 
 tried to see something of this, his first engagement, before 
 it came to an end. 
 
 Being literally in the thick of it, he could hardly have 
 
 seen less or known less of what happened in that particular 
 skirmish if he had been at home in England. For many 
 good reasons ; including dust and smoke, and that what 
 attention he dared distract from his commanding officer 
 was pretty well absorbed by keeping his hard-mouthed 
 troop-horse in hand, under pain of execration by his neigh- 
 bours in the melee* By-and-by, when the newspapers 
 came out, if he could get a look at one before it was 
 
 D 2 
 
2,6 HIS FIRST BATTLE. 
 
 thumbed to bits, he would learn that the enemy had 
 appeared from ambush in overwhelming numbers, and 
 that orders had been given to fall back, which was done 
 slowly and in good order, the men fighting as they 
 retired. 
 
 Born and bred on the Goose Green, the youngest of 
 Mr. Johnson's gardener's numerous offspring, the boy had 
 given his family " no peace " till they let him " go for a 
 soldier" with Master Tony and Master Jackanapes. They 
 consented at last, with more tears than they shed when an 
 elder son was sent to gaol for poaching, and the boy was 
 perfectly happy in his life, and full of esprit de corps. It 
 was this which had been wounded by having to sound 
 retreat for "the young gentlemen's regiment," the first 
 time he served with it before the enemy, and he was also 
 harassed by having completely lost sight of Master Tony. 
 There had been some hard fighting before the backward 
 movement began, and he had caught sight of him once, 
 but not since. On the other hand, all the pulses of his 
 village pride had been stirred by one or two visions of 
 Master Jackanapes whirling about on his wonderful horse. 
 He had been easy to distinguish, since an eccentric blow 
 had bared his head without hurting it, for his close golden 
 mop of hair gleamed in the hot sunshine as brightly as the 
 steel of the sword flashing round it. 
 
 Of the missiles that fell pretty thickly, the Boy Trum- 
 peter did not take much notice. First, one can't attend to 
 everything, and his hands were full. Secondly, one gets 
 used to anything. Thirdly, experience soon teaches one, 
 in spite of proverbs, how very few bullets find their billet. 
 Far more unnerving is the mere suspicion of fear or even 
 of anxiety in the human mass around you. The Boy was 
 beginning to wonder if there were any dark reason for the 
 increasing pressure, and whether they would be allowed to 
 move back more quickly, when the smoke in front lifted 
 
WHEN BALE IS HEXT BOOT IS NEXT 37 
 
 for a moment, and he could see the plain, and the enemy's 
 line some two hundred yards away. 
 
 And across the plain between them, he saw Master 
 Jackanapes galloping alone at the top of Lollo's speed, 
 their faces to the enemy, his golden head at Lollo's ear. 
 
 But at this moment noise and smoke seemed to burst 
 out on every side, the officer shouted to him to sound 
 retire, and between trumpeting and bumping about on his 
 horse, he saw and heard no more of the incidents of his 
 first battle. 
 
 Tony Johnson was always unlucky with horses, from 
 the days of the giddy-go-round onwards. On this day — 
 of all days in the year — his own horse was on the sick list, 
 and he had to ride an inferior, ill-conditioned beast, and 
 fell off that, at the very moment when it was a matter of 
 life or death to be able to ride away. The horse fell on 
 him, but struggled up again, and Tony managed to keep 
 hold of it. It was in trying to remount that he discovered, 
 by helplessness and anguish, that one of his legs was 
 crushed and broken, and that no feat of which he was 
 master would get him into the saddle. Not able even to 
 stand alone, awkwardly, agonizingly unable to mount his 
 restive horse, his life was yet so strong within him ! And 
 on one side of him rolled the dust and smoke-cloud of his 
 advancing foes, and on the other, that which covered his 
 retreating friends. 
 
 He turned one piteous gaze after them, with a bitter 
 twinge, not of reproach, but of loneliness ; and then, drag- 
 ging himself up by the side of his horse, he turned the 
 other way and drew out his pistol, and waited for the end. 
 Whether he waited seconds or minutes he never knew, 
 before some one gripped him by the arm. 
 
 " Jackanapes ! GOD bless yon ! It's my left leg. If 
 you could get me on " 
 
 It was like Tony's luck that his pistol went off at his 
 
38 A RIDE FOR LIFE. 
 
 horse's tail, and made it plunge; but Jackanapes threw 
 him across the saddle. 
 
 " Hold on anyhow, and stick your spur in. I'll lead 
 him. Keep your head down, they're firing high." 
 
 And Jackanapes laid his head down — to Lollo's ear. 
 
 It was when they were fairly off, that a sudden up- 
 springing of the enemy in all directions had made it 
 necessary to change the gradual retirement of our force 
 into as rapid a retreat as possible. And when Jackanapes 
 became aware of this, and felt the lagging and swerving of 
 Tony's horse, he began to wish he had thrown his friend 
 across his own saddle, and left their lives to Lollo. 
 
 When Tony became aware of it, several things came 
 into his head. I. That the dangers of their ride for life 
 were now more than doubled. 2. That if Jackanapes and 
 Lollo were not burdened with him they would undoubtedly 
 escape. 3. That Jackanapes' life was infinitely valuable, 
 and his — Tony's — was not. 4. That this — if he could 
 seize it — was the supremest of all the moments in which 
 he had tried to assume the virtues which Jackanapes had 
 by nature ; and that if he could be courageous and un- 
 selfish now 
 
 He caught at his own reins and spoke very loud 
 
 " Jackanapes ! It won't do, You and Lollo must go 
 on. Tell the fellows I gave you back to them, with all my 
 heart. Jackanapes, if you love me, leave me !" 
 
 . There was a daffodil light over the evening sky in front 
 of them, and it shone strangely on Jackanapes' hair and 
 face. He turned with an odd look in his eyes that a vainer 
 man than Tony Johnson might have taken for brotherly 
 pride. Then he shook his mop, and laughed at him. 
 
 " Leave you ? To save my skin ? No, Tony, not to 
 save my soul ! " 
 
39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Mr. Valiant summoned. His will. His last words. 
 
 Then, said he, "I am going to my Father's. ... My Sword I 
 give to him that shall succeed me in my Pilgrimage, and my Courage and 
 Skill to him that can get it." . . . And as he went down deeper, he said, 
 "Grave, where is thy Victory?" 
 
 So he passed over, and all the Trumpets sounded for him on the other 
 side. 
 
 Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 
 
 IOMING out of a hospital-tent, 
 at headquarters, the surgeon 
 cannoned against, and re- 
 bounded from, another 
 officer ; a sallow man, not 
 young, with a face worn 
 more by ungentle expe- 
 riences than by age; with 
 weary eyes that kept their 
 own counsel, iron-grey hair, 
 and a moustache that was 
 as if a raven had laid its 
 wing across his lips and 
 sealed them. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Beg pardon, Major. Didn't see you. Oh, com- 
 pound fracture and bruises, but it's all right. He'll pull 
 through." 
 
 " Thank God." 
 
 It was probably an involuntary expression, for prayer 
 
40 MR. VALIANT SUMMONED. 
 
 and praise were not much in the Major's line, as a 
 jerk of the surgeon's head would have betrayed to 
 an observer. He was a bright little man, with his 
 feelings showing all over him, but with gallantry and 
 contempt of death enough for both sides of his profes- 
 sion ; who took a cool head, a white handkerchief and a 
 case of instruments, where other men went hot-blooded 
 with weapons, and who was the biggest gossip, male 
 or female, of the regiment. Not even the Major's 
 taciturnity daunted him. 
 
 " Didn't think he'd as much pluck about him as he has. 
 He'll do all right if he doesn't fret himself into a fever 
 about poor Jackanapes/' 
 
 "Whom are you talking about?" asked the Major 
 hoarsely. 
 
 "Young Johnson. He " 
 
 " What about Jackanapes ?" 
 
 " Don't you know ? Sad business. Rode back for 
 Johnson, and brought him in ; but, monstrous ill-luck, hit 
 as they rode. Left lung " 
 
 "Will he recover?" 
 
 " No. Sad business. What a frame — what limbs — 
 what health — and what good looks ! Finest young 
 fellow " 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 " In his own tent," said the surgeon sadly. 
 
 The Major wheeled and left him. 
 
 >h ^ * * ^ % 
 
 " Can I do anything else for you ?" 
 
 " Nothing, thank you, Except — Major ! I wish I could 
 get you to appreciate Johnson." 
 
 " This is not an easy moment, Jackanapes." 
 
 " Let me tell you, sir — lie never will — that if he could 
 have driven me from him, he would be lying yonder at this 
 moment, and I should be safe and sound." 
 
HIS WILL. 41 
 
 The Major laid his hand over his mouth, as if to keep 
 back a wish he would have been ashamed to utter. 
 
 " I've known old Tony from a child. He's a fool on 
 impulse, a good man and a gentleman in principle. And 
 
 he acts on principle, which it's not every some water, 
 
 please ! Thank you, sir. It's very hot, and yet one's feet 
 get uncommonly cold. Oh, thank you thank you. He's 
 no fire-eater, but he has a trained conscience and a tender 
 heart, and he'll do his duty when a braver and more selfish 
 man might fail you, But he wants encouragement ; and 
 when I'm gone " 
 
 " He shall have encouragement. You have my word 
 for it. Can I do nothing else ?" 
 
 " Yes, Major. A favour." 
 
 " Thank you, Jackanapes." 
 
 " Be Lollo's master, and love him as well as you can. 
 He's used to it." 
 
 "Wouldn't you rather Johnson had him ?" 
 
 The blue eyes twinkled in spite of mortal pain. 
 
 " Tony rides on principle, Major. His legs are bolsters, 
 and will be to the end of the chapter. I couldn't insult 
 dear Lollo, but if you don't care " 
 
 " Whilst I live which will be longer than I desire or 
 
 deserve Lollo shall want nothing, but you. I have 
 
 too little tenderness for my dear boy, you're faint. 
 
 Can you spare me for a moment?" 
 
 " No, stay—Major i" 
 
 "What? What?" 
 
 " My head drifts so — it you wouldn't mind." 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" 
 
 " Say a prayer by me. Out loud please, I am getting 
 deaf." 
 
 " My dearest Jackanapes — my dear boy " 
 
 " One of the Church Prayers — Parade Service, you 
 know " 
 
42 HIS LAST WORDS. 
 
 " I see. But the fact is — God forgive me, Jackanapes 
 — I'm a very different sort of fellow to some of you 
 youngsters. Look here, let me fetch " 
 
 But Jackanapes' hand was in his, and it wouldn't let go. 
 
 There was a brief and bitter silence. 
 
 "Ton my soul I can only remember the little one at 
 the end." 
 
 " Please," whispered Jackanapes. 
 
 Pressed by the conviction that what little he could do it 
 was his duty to do, the Major — kneeling — bared his head, 
 and spoke loudly, clearly, and very reverently — 
 
 " The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ " 
 
 Jackanapes moved his left hand to his right one, which 
 still held the Major's— 
 
 "—The love of God." 
 
 And with that — Jackanapes died. 
 
43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Und so ist der blaue Himmel grosser als jedes 
 Gewolk darin, und dauerhafter dazu." 
 
 Jean Paul Richter. 
 
 ACKANAPES' death was sad news 
 for the Goose Green, a sorrow just quali- 
 ^fied by honourable pride in his gallantry 
 and devotion. Only the Cobbler dis- 
 sented, but that was his way. He said 
 he saw nothing in it but foolhardiness 
 and vainglory. They might both have 
 been killed, as easy as not, and then where would ye have 
 been ? A man's life was a man's life, and one life was as 
 good as another. No one would catch him throwing his 
 away. And, for that matter, Mrs. Johnson could spare a 
 child a great deal better than Miss Jessamine, 
 
 But the parson preached Jackanapes' funeral sermon 
 />n the text, " Whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; 
 and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it ; " 
 and all the village went and wept to hear him. 
 
 Nor did Miss Jessamine see her loss from the Cobbler's 
 point of view, On the contrary, Mrs. Johnson said she 
 never to her dying day should forget how, when she went 
 to condole with her, the old lady came forward, with 
 gentlewomanly self-control, and kissed her, and thanked 
 God that her dear nephew's effort had been blessed with 
 
44 
 
 LOLLO THE FIRST. 
 
 success, and that this sad war had made no gap in her 
 friend's large and happy home circle. 
 
 " But she's a noble, unselfish woman/' sobbed Mrs. 
 Johnson, " and she taught Jackanapes to be the same, and 
 that's how it is that my Tony has been spared to me. 
 And it must be sheer goodness in Miss Jessamine, for what 
 can she know of a mother's feelings ? And I'm sure most 
 people seem to think that if you've a large family you 
 don't know one from another any more than they do, and 
 that a lot of children are like a lot of store-apples, if one's 
 taken it won't be missed." 
 
 ^-v- 
 
 v'.A-' 
 
 ~-4/sS 
 
 Lollo — the first Lollo, the Gipsy's Lollo — very aged, 
 draws Miss Jessamine's bath-chair slowly up and down the 
 Goose Green in the sunshine. 
 
 The Ex-postman walks beside him, which Lollo 
 tolerates to the level of his shoulder. If the Postman 
 advances any nearer to his head, Lollo quickens his pace, 
 and were the Postman to persist in the injudicious attempt, 
 
A TALE OF A TWOPENNY TRUMPET. 45 
 
 there is, as Miss Jessamine says, no knowing what might 
 happen. 
 
 In the opinion of the Goose Green, Miss Jessamine has 
 borne her troubles "wonderfully." Indeed, to-day, some 
 of the less delicate and less intimate of those who see 
 everything from the upper windows, say (well behind her 
 back) that " the old lady seems quite lively with her mili- 
 tary beaux again." 
 
 The meaning of this is, that Captain Johnson is leaning 
 over one side of her chair, whilst by the other bends a 
 brother officer who is -staying with him, and who has mani- 
 fested an extraordinary interest in Lollo. He bends lower 
 and lower, and Miss Jessamine calls to the Postman to 
 request Lollo to be kind enough to stop, whilst she is 
 fumbling for something which always hangs by her side, 
 and has got entangled with her spectacles. 
 
 It is a twopenny trumpet, bought years ago in the 
 village fair, and over it she and Captain Johnson tell, as 
 best they can, between them, the story of Jackanapes' ride 
 across the Goose Green ; and how he won Lollo — the 
 Gipsy's Lollo — the racer Lollo — dear Lollo — faithful Lollo 
 — Lollo the never vanquished — Lollo the tender servant of 
 his old mistress. And Lollo's ears twitch at every mention 
 of his name. 
 
 Their hearer does not speak, but he never moves his 
 eyes from the trumpet, and when the tale is told, he 
 lifts Miss Jessamine's hand and presses his heavy black 
 moustache in silence to her trembling fingers. 
 
 The sun, setting gently to his rest, embroiders the 
 sombre foliage of the oak-tree with threads of gold. The 
 Grey Goose is sensible of an atmosphere of repose, and 
 puts up one leg for the night. The grass glows with a 
 more vivid green, and, in answer to a ringing call from 
 Tony, his sisters, fluttering over the daisies in pale-hued 
 muslins, come out of their ever-open door, like pretty 
 pigeons from a dovecote. 
 
4 6 
 
 DAS SICHTBARE 1ST ZEITLICH. 
 
 \," \ / 
 
 
 J 
 
 And, if the good gossips' eyes do not deceive them, all 
 the Miss Johnsons, and both the officers, go wandering off 
 into the lanes, where bryony wreaths still twine about the 
 brambles. 
 
 *X* *-!-* *£# **i> *^ *1* 
 
 •■fx *f* ^. -^. >J» »T* 
 
 A sorrowful story, and ending badly? 
 
 Nay, Jackanapes, for the End is not yet. 
 
 A life wasted that might have been useful ? 
 
 Men who have died for men, in all ages, forgive the 
 thought ! 
 
 There is a heritage of heroic example and noble obli- 
 gation, not reckoned in the Wealth of Nations, but essen- 
 tial to a nation's life ; the contempt of which, in any people, 
 may, not slowly, mean even its commercial fall. 
 
 Very sweet are the uses of prosperity, the harvests of 
 
DAS UNSICHTBARE 1ST EWIG. 47 
 
 peace and progress, the fostering sunshine of health and 
 happiness, and length of days in the land, 
 
 But there be things — oh, sons of what has deserved the 
 name of Great Britain, forget it not ! — "the good of" which 
 and "the use of" which are beyond all calculation of 
 worldly goods and earthly uses : things such as Love, and 
 Honour, and the Soul of Man, which cannot be bought 
 with a price, and which do not die with death. And they 
 who would fain live happily EVER after, should not leave 
 these things out of the lessons of their lives. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 SD5JU1TD BVANS, BNGBAVBB AND PBINTBB, BACQUKT COUBT, ILBKT 8TBBBI. 
 
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