xt79319s2414 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt79319s2414/data/mets.xml Martin, George Madden, 1866- 1907 books b92-235-31281108 English McClure Co., : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Letitia : nursery corps, U.S.A. / by George Madden Martin. text Letitia : nursery corps, U.S.A. / by George Madden Martin. 1907 2002 true xt79319s2414 section xt79319s2414 LETITIA: Nursery Corps, U. S. A. - The essential most necessary to make the admirable army woman is that instinct which, on a night's halt, can create the feeling of home out of Dougherty cushions and blankets if it should come to that. In the nomadic life of the army, stability and morals are represented in the home." From the porch conversations of Mrs. Colonel Ganeau. This page in the original text is blank. Letitia Letitia NURSERY CORPS, U. S. A. BY GEORGE MADDEN MARTIN AUTHOR OF EMMY LOU NEW YORK THE McCLURE COMPANY MCMVII CopYright, 1907, by The McClurr Company Published, November, 1097 Copyright, 1906, 1907, by The Phillips Publishing Co. DEDICITION To ELIZABETH, THE MOTHER OF MARIANNA, AND TO THE MRS, RONALDS, AND THE MRS. GANEAUS OF THE ARMY, WHOM IT HAS BEEN MY PRIVILEGE TO KNOW, THESE FEW STORIES ARE DEDICATED, AS A SLIGHT TRIB- UTE OF ADMIRATION OF THEM, AS INDIVIDUALS AND AS TYPES This page in the original text is blank. CONTENTS PAGE COM AND NON-COM I PARTY LINES . . . . 37 AND THE LAST STATE OF THAT MAN . .63 "HIMSELF HE COULD NOT SAVE" - . 107 THE AMENDE HONORABLE OF MAMA . . 145 THE PART OF ONE COLONEL'S LADY . . 179 This page in the original text is blank. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS LETITIA .rontispiece FA(CING PAGE CONCERNING INJUNS. . I2 NON-COM MAMAS HAVF UNLIMHIED TlIME . . i6 A REAL MAMA, ON THE CONTRARY, IS THE BUSIEST LADY IN THE WORLD . . . . . . 20 LETITIA, THEREFORE, NOW WATCHED THE CHOOSING OF THE STRIKER EARNESTLY . . . . 26 SLOWLY BUT ACCURATELY PROCEEDED CORPORAL LEG'R ..32 IS IT A REASON WHY OFF CERS LITTLE GIRLS CAN'T PLAY WITH NON-COMS . . . . . 46 AS A GENERAL THING MARIANNA WAS GARBED IN GINGHAM ROMPERS .52 EVERYTHING ELSE AT THE PARTY BECAME MNERE BACKGROUND FOR HER. 56 WHAT IS THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THIS PLACE I FIND MYSELF IN, MY MAN . . . . 82 RIGHT YOU ARE, MA'AM . . . NOTHING WHATEVER TO TEMPT A MAN TO CANTEEN Now 90 [ vii ] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACTNG PAGE "I SEE NOTHING TO OBJECT TO, ANYWHERE," SAID AUNT EMMA .100 HER ARMS RAPTUROUSLY ABOUT THE NECK OF SYLVANUS ..8 SMITH . . . WAS KICKING .132 TRANSPORTING DESERT FROM ONE SPOT TO ANOTHER BY BUCKET i58 MR. HORNSBY WAS THERE MOST DAYS . . . 164 [ viii ] COM AND NON-COM This page in the original text is blank. COM AND NON-COM S INCE army conditions encourage a preju- dice against too much baggage, babies now and then stand a chance of being looked upon as a superfluous part of a nomadic menage. Letitia's mother therefore, had to defend her- self when unencumbered ladies condoned or sympathized. "I assure you she was an accident not calcu- lated for in any of our plans," she retorted sharp- ly once, compassioned too far. It might almost have been a crossing of swords between the ladies. "A woman has as many haters of herself on a post as there are ladies she excels in looks," she also put it sweetly after one of these sword- crossing contests. There had been eight ladies, at bridge, present at the moment referred to, herself included, and the seven were homely. [3] LETITIA But that occasion and that post were ancient history now. Letitia was nearly eight and had moved six times. "You get on the train and when you get off, it's another colonel's way," was her version of it. "And another home " an adult fellow-travel- er on the sleeper taking Letty and her officer papa and her officer's lady mama to this last remove, asked her. "House " queried Letty in her turn, the vocabulary at eight evidently being limited to the words which from experience are known. It was a new post and a new house at which she and her father and mother were arriving now. It was evening. The army 'bus was bringing them up from the dock. Everywhere was loose deep sand, white glaring sand, and as the 'bus horses plowed through it they looked discour- aged and their heads hung. Sand-flies made vicious nips at Letitia's calves dangling from the 'bus-seat. Along the oyster-shell walk, two soldiers were conducting a prisoner whose head hung too; then he stumbled, stopped, and despite his cap- tors, showed fight. [ 4] COM AND NON-COM "Nice hole this," said papa, "faugh!" And papa, who was slim, trim, neat-footed, bit at his small, fair mustache. "Cattle is the business of the ranch," said mama; "as the brand is the same at every post, what did you expect to find " "Is it a niland, or just shore " asked Letitia. She had been at both. Now it was an inviolable rule never to be lightly broken, not to talk to mama, still less to papa, toward the end of a Journeying and the arrival at the post at that journey's end. It has taken all the money to break up again and get Letty and mama there, you know. "Can't you keep her quiet" said papa to mama so politely that Letty sat painfully still. "Begin now, I would, on top of the other de- lights of arrival," said mama. She was stooping a little to adjust her veil by the strip of mirror between the 'bus-windows, for a bit of veil bisect- ing chin and cheek and lobe of ear and caught to a tilted hat-brim behind makes a lovely mama even lovelier, a matter always to be thought of by pretty ladies as they are arriving anywhere. [5] LETITIA As the 'bus turned onto p'rade, Letitia could have told you retreat had sounded even if the gun had not that moment boomed. P'rade squared on three sides by headquarters, barracks, and guard-house and on the fourth open to the sea, presented a spectacular appearance of men and band and fluttering stars and stripes with a fringe of civilian spectators on the outskirts, while led to across the arm of the ocean by a blood-red path, the sun was setting in a ball be- hind the city spires across the bay. "Oh, say can you see-" the band here demanded of Letitia in crashing strains, but the 'bus had turned off the edge of p'rade and was trundling briskly along the back of a row of houses. There were no fences, no trees, no grass, only sand, with here and there a clothes-line or a sagging chicken-coop. Part of an ever-moving caravan, is it to be ex- pected that army officers or their ladies are going to plant vines and fig-trees for a mere night's lodging beneath, as it were That were to pre- suppose in human nature far too great altruism. Let the colonels and the Government do their own beautifying. Posts vary, the last had been [61 COM AND NON-COM impeccable. It depends largely you see, upon the commanding officer. Not that Letitia thought to these conclusions, she only knew that this one felt lonesome. Behind each house sat a dingy tin garbage- can. Mama spoke. "Run down at heels. With an easy colonel again and no brace up, I see your finish, Buckner," she said to papa sweetly. All of which had taken perhaps two minutes of time, during which the 'bus turned a corner and came round to the front of things. The new house, No. I7, stood one of a row, all alike, facing the breakwater, the beach and the sea. "-and the bome of the brave !" exultantly declared the band to Letty, then ceased with blatant crash, and as the vehicle backed to the oyster-shell walk, the sun sank, the sea faded gray, and the air grew chill. The soldier-driver descended, strode around, opened the door, came to attention and s'luted, whereat papa and mama got out, leaving him to bring in the impedimenta. Of it he chose Letty first, who took his hand to walk up the [7] LETITIA twenty feet of oyster-shell path while he in his other, carried satchels. There was one little shrub in Letitia's new white sand yard overlooking the wide gray sea, and it shivered. " It's a noleander," the soldier told her when she asked, or so she understood. He loosed her hand at the veranda and she followed papa who followed mama, into the last remove. Later a detail of soldiers came from quarters to uncrate. Now an empty house is full of strange sounds which Letitia had learned are called echoes. Boxes, crates and gunny-sacked rolls lay about on the bare floors. The detail filed in and saluted. "Knock those beds out and up," said papa curtly, acknowledging. "Hands off, Buckner," said mama sharply if softly to papa. " I choose my own striker and with no black eye from you for No. I7 beforehand." Which meant that mama, her veil and hat on the mantel now, her tossed and rumpled hair only the lovelier for it, her lovely self jauntily perched on a high box, her natty foot swinging, [8] COM AND NON-COM -that mama was going to choose for herself from one of these men, if one proved available, that soldier who should tend the furnace, brush and keep in order papa's clothes and shoes and Of course if one is very very nice to a striker there are other things he may do if he is so mind- ed, though he is not supposed to nor yet, far from it, required to. No soldier has to be a striker unless he feels thus inclined to add to his earn- ings; moreover, if he become one, what else he is willing to do is a matter between the good nature of himself and the lady of the officer em- ploying him and to be kept between them. For a colonel, or even a company's captain to come for instance, on a uniformed United States soldier counting the clothes out for wash Lovely mamas are pretty, which is one kind of thing, and lovely mamas can smile pretty, which is another. Mama, as a rule, Letty had noticed smiled pretty at strikers, and at quarter- masters who deal out the things appertaining to new households, at captains and at colonels. She did not bother with ladies or with papas. She was tired then. [9] LETITIA Now much, you must know, in Letitia's life, depended on this condescendingly pleasant smil- ing by mama at the striker, who would under the successful operation of the same, stay with Letty when the cook would not, for instance when there was a bridge at the colonel's - if in- deed it was one of those fortunate times when there was a cook. Once within memory, and remembrance at something this side of eight does not go overly far back - a cookless time this chanced to be - mama and papa felt obliged to start before the striker got there. "It's an infernal -" papa began, for papas do not like to be detained for Letitias or strikers either. "He will be here by the time we are started," said mama reassuringly, and so they went. But he never came, having been pinched which is to say put in the mill officially known as the guard-house. Now you call what is generally responsible for getting a striker in the guard-house or to be exact, you did at that particular post, "peso," or "blind tiger's bite," but when it happens to [ 10] COM AND NON-COM your papa (not the guard-house), mama calls it "Scotch." And so this time within memory, Letitia's striker did not come and he did not come, and strange noises, as you know, promptly begin in houses as soon as there is no papa or mama or cook or striker in them; also Things which are not really things, of course, fly back into corners when you sit up and look, and " nawful " words, once told you by a little boy, such as " raw-head an' bloody-bones!" recur to you inconveniently; and while, in fact, you would rather not, you are impelled to think of fearful happenings which the Old Sergeant, swinging you up on the big ancient unmounted gun, "Old smash-'em-all," has told you concerning Injuns who coming c-r-e-e--ping up in those days on the sleeping frontier post - And matters having reached this point, Letitia, braving the things likely to clutch her if she went because of worse things sure to do so if she stayed, slipped fearfully out of bed and more fearfully down the awful stairs and out of the house and patted it barefooted and in nightie 'cross p'rade, itself unexpectedly vast and boundless, un- [ II ] LETITIA familiar and tenantless by night, to non-com row and there turned the knob of Mrs. Sergeant Crashaw's door. This person being non-com, Letty could not by any means have played with her children by day, but when everybody along Off'cers' Row has gone to the colonel's party, a non-com mama can wrap you in a blanket comf'y, good as any, and rock you consolingly; and can be trusted to rouse her sergeant-husband to carry you home when the party is over and mamas along Off'cers' Row have returned. These non-com mamas have leisure, too, if you slip over there by day, to slap the iron on the stand and tell you a story of the Philippines, the awed little non-coms standing about listen- ing also; time also to cut and dispense slices of bread all around, spread with sugar, between the peeling of the spuds for dinner. Potatoes you call these last in off'cers' row but when you mingle with strikers and non-coms, they are spuds. Non-com ladies, moreover, have time to make their little girls enviable pina cloth dresses for Sunday, in which they go out walking holding to their sergeant-papa's hand, and with which [ 12] 1 0 i-f =N1 This page in the original text is blank. COM AND NON-COM they wear wonderful hats with wreaths of feather-flowers thereon. A real mama such as one's own on the con- trary, is the busiest lady in the world, so busy that the joy of life in order to help her, is to stand and silently hand her, as she is ready for each, file, rosy polish, buffer, or shell pins, combs, curling-irons. But Mrs. Sergeant Crashaw, you see, lived back at the last post, while here life had to begin all over again with p'raps no friendly Mrs. Sergeant across in non-com row. Hence Letitia was deeply concerned in the matter of striker, for as is generally conceded there is not much to be hoped for in cooks. Cooks won't clean shoes as a striker will, or thaw the water-pipes, or brush mama's muddy skirts, or lay out papa's dress uniform, or clean his razors, or fly around for the brandy and soda those times which mama calls "the morning after," or stand to attention and s'lute when papa slings forceful words such as "damn." Cooks won't take these things. They go. And then what you get to eat, in Letitia's experience, depends very much on the capability and good nature of your 1 13] LETITIA striker. Therefore she now watched the choos- ing of this functionary earnestly. To do so, she got the burlap off her own little chair and pulling it to one side, for mamas and papas have a way of being provoked if they fall over their little girls, sat down. The detail of soldiers worked busily with hatchet and hammer since the new-comers had to have beds and bedding to sleep in that night. The four of the five men were mere types of the private anywhere, Letitia could have told you that; types even in names, Murphy, Batts, Kinsey, and McAdams being the ones they answered to, for mama asked them. And then swinging her pretty foot in its natty Oxford, she smiled with a gracious condescension at Mur- phy, Batts, Kinsey, and McAdams, who fell to afresh with tempestuous zeal. After which mama, from her playful perch on the box, ordering papa to delve farther in that chest and he'd find the sheets were there, narrowed her eyes consideringly at the fifth man. So Letitia looked at him too. "And your name, Corporal " mama asked. Now some ladies would never have noticed his ['4] COM AND NON-COM chevrons. Letitia had of course, since she knew the very soul of a soldier, and she sighed con- tentedly that mama had not failed her little daughter's faith in her and settled again in her small chair. Now the corporal was swollen about the lids and the lower face and he was heavily red. Letty knew the thing as a matter of course. It happens when a soldier has been to town and is also closely allied to pay-day, and it is following this phenomenon of appearance that a man gets pinched which is to say, put in the guard- house. That is privates and corporals get pinched, or get their belts pulled, papas, as known by Letty's own, sleep it off. The corporal with the heavy, sulky lids and swollen face was hitting the cratings as if he might mean to demolish them instead. He was straight and powerful on his legs and broad in his back, his eyes were blue and his short, clipped hair was black. He could have played bones with any two of the other four men with one hand, as the cannibal king did with the mission- aries in Mrs. Sergeant Crashaw's Pacific island stories, and he scowled red. [ IS] LETITIA But mama, regarding him consideringly, asked, "And your name, Corporal " " Leg'rW," said the man at attention, if sullenly. Letitia had gathered from mama before this, that when one is asking a service along the way, of any one from a colonel on post to a cab- man at the curb, it costs no more to be gra- cious. Within the proper degree one may be gracious even to an enlisted man. Mama, for her own needs, chose to assume this one to be worthy of her appeal to him, and as an en- listed man is what he is made to feel himself to be, the effect on this one was immediate. He straightened. His "attention" seemed to be- come a voluntary and straightforward affair. The toughest rookie there might be on a post, was always deferential to mama. " Thank you for setting together Letitia's lit- tle bed up-stairs, first," said she politely, just as though Corporal Leg'r6 had thought himself to do it, instead of papa having shortly ordered him. "And Corporal, if you will lift the tray of that trunk which is unstrapped behind you there, and hand Letitia the little gown on top, she can go up-stairs-" [ i6 ] Non-com mamas have unlimited time " , tw' 11 ,O, This page in the original text is blank. COM AND NON-COM Now strikers as often as anybody else, thus far in life, had shared the responsibility of find- ing Letitia her gowns. They looked startled about it at first, these soldier-men, just as huge Corporal Leg'rE did now who blushed with a suf- fused violence through his swollen red as, obey- ing orders, he lifted the object pointed out by his officer's lady. But since it was accepted as a matter of course by Letitia's mother and by her officer papa, himself issuing sharp orders to the other men, and by that little person herself, the blush became a blush because of the blushing. Which is how mama meant it to be with soldier strikers, and so as the big corporal moved to the next thing to be done, she again smiled gra- ciously. Now not only is it entirely optional with a soldier whether he be a striker or not, but it is the exception for a corporal to be one. Still pretty mamas can secure concessions from colonels, and naturally a corporal is the better man if one can get him. Therefore Letty, arising from her little chair, her gown in her arms, was at peace. She knew the curing of that personage was ac- complished. [17] LETITIA The kitchen range, No. 17, Off'cers' Row, stood cold and overflowing with ashes even onto the floor. A brimming bucket, with bloated, swollen biscuits, egg-shells, and lettuce leaves afloat on its surface, sat under the sink. The clock had stopped. Letitia, in the doorway, knew the signs. Since mama could do so much with lieutenants and captains and even more with colonels and strik- ers, Letitia often wondered why she did not try it with cooks. It was not so early, no matter if the clock which had stopped, did say so, for the bugle had awakened Letitia some time before, in its ener- getic and lively way protesting that You can't get 'em up, rou can't get 'em up, rou can't get 'em up in the morning, though some people do call the same reveille. Since then mess-call had sounded a bit ago, so that Corporal Leg'rW ought by now to be coming. Though he had been with No. 17 that space of time called a month, there is always the [ I8 ] COM AND NON-COM recurring danger of pay-day, which was yester- day. Cooks are liable to go any time whereas if a striker fails you, it's sure to be the morning after that day. And this was Corporal Leg'rE's first pay-day since The fear weighed heavily on Letitia. Then the outer door opened and huge Cor- poral Leg'rW filled the space where he paused as if he too, knew the signs. "Gone, ma'am " said he, for regardless of age, all the ladies of an officer's household were " ma'am" to this Corporal Leg'rW. Letty nodded. Then facing around and back- ing, she presented her small self to the corporal who, seeing the situation, shut the door and went to buttoning up the lines of buttons and holes thus presented. Slowly but accurately proceeded Corporal Leg'rW, for fingers that however huge and blunt, can teach Letty to make hitches and clove-hitches, double-sheet bends, bowlines and sheep-shanks with a bit of twine, can button underbodies, and waist- bands and gingham aprons, if you give 'em time. And Corporal Leg'r6 (which is how you called [ I9] LETITI A it, though you spelled it Legari), like Letitia, had read the kitchen signs too. " I suspicioned it when I saw her switchin' her head from side to side last night. None of 'em aren't no manner of account whatsoever, ma'am. Are the quarters up-stairs comfortable " Letty thought they were. "Then I won't shake down the furnace, till I set her goin' here." He meant the kitchen range. "No. I7 will be rippin' wide if it comes down and no breakfast doing." Which meant papa. Letitia understood and looked up, for the comfortable thing about a striker is, he under- stands too. " It's the morning after, Corp'ral Leg'r6," she explained. "No, ma'am " said that person, regretfully. "Nothing needed then but his java,"--java with a striker being a generic term for coffee- "which he'll be wanting black and strong and right away; where's the coffee-pot, I wonder " It was in the dish-pan along with other un- washed tins, and was full of grounds. [20 ] by 42gi M s j a: a \ W V 4 real mama, on the contrary, is the busiest lady in the world This page in the original text is blank. COM AND NON-COM Letitia knelt upon a chair while Corporal Leg'rW dumped the contents of the coffee-pot in the sink. "What'd you have for breakfast " she quer- ied, for papa and mama dining out the night before, Letitia had not had a great deal herself, the nature of cooks being as it is. "Slum and sinkers, ma'am," avowed Corporal LegWre. Now slum and sinkers, otherwise known in Officers' Row as hash and dumplings, are not to be despised. "What'll I have " queried Letty. "No hardtack " "No." For Letitia had looked. The bread- box was empty. "Eggs " But a search, once the kettle was on and the coffee-pot ready, revealed none, though Corporal Leg'r& while investigating, made an- other find. "Dope," declared he gravely even if trium- phantly as he lifted it down from the shelf. "Dope" - which meant pie -" and pone dope at that!" -which meant apple. [21 ] LETITIA And the water being ready, soon Corporal Leg'rW went up with coffee to his superior officer, while Letitia kneeling on her chair at the kitchen table, ate dope. And papa gone, presently mama's call came down over the front stair banister, mamas as Letty knew them, not coming down for their breakfasts, you know. Corporal Leg'rW, hearing, came hurrying up from the cellar and furnace, and he and Letitia went up with her coffee and to break the news about the cook. She was sitting on the top step with her lovely chin in her lovely palms, and looked amused and also inquiring as the two appeared. Haply a mama's hair, being lovely too, is lovely tumbled any way and her pretty feet, thrust into high-heeled little red slippers, patted marching time beneath the edge of her kimono for Letty as the two came up, whereupon Corporal Leg'rW, raising his eyes as he turned the landing and finding himself in the presence of his off'cer's lady, came to such a rigid, not to say reverent attention, the cup skipped on the tray, after which Corporal Leg'rW stood stiffly while Letty told about the cook. [22 ] COM AND NON-COM Mama took the tray and set it on her knees. "Yesterday was pay-day, Leg'r6 " said she briskly. " Ma'am, yes." "And you went to town " Ma'am, yes, ma'am." "And you are here to look after Letitia and me this morning " Corporal Leg'r6 grew red, even apologetic, but stood his ground. "Corporal Leg'r6," said mama graciously and kindly, "why " The corporal, towering and rigid like a man of bronze, cleared his throat. "No. 17'S got to be looked after," said he husky with embarrass- ment. "I'll get leave till guard-mount, ma'am, and come back. Things are in a regular woman's mess, meaning cooks, below quarters." "Thank you," said mama. "And what about finding another cook for us, Corporal " So you see there is nothing like a striker, if you choose him right. Corporal Leg'rW turned and departed to get leave. And mama having finished her coffee, went back to her room, found her new book on bridge and pulled the couch [ 23] LETITIA around to the window on the sea. The one little bush nodded gaily down there in the morning sun. Letitia could see it. "Run along, Letty," said mama, "I can't be bothered now. 'May you play out' With the colonel's grandchildren, I suppose you mean Letitia, you know I do not allow you to play so much with other children on a post. I'll not have you learning things you shouldn't know; and besides as I've told you, it would mean they'd be coming here next, spying and carrying tales. 'Play with your little bush,' you mean What a curious child you are, Letty. Why, yes -no, it's in the front yard, and you are too untidy, it would mean somebody dress you. Go stay with Leg'r6 while he's cleaning, or at any rate, run along - I can't be bothered now." Another pay-day was come and gone. The senior captain's wife was giving a bridge to- night. "Don't you ever tire -" began papa on the afternoon of it. Papas, you see, have days of brooding dejection. "Never," said mama. [24] COM AND NON-COM. "Don't you ever think of Letitia " Now and then, you see, papas thus do think of their Letitias. "Always. I'm expecting you to get permission for Leg'r6 as usual. Why this sudden concern for Letty " "I'm tired of it, tired to the soul," said papa, slim, trim papa, biting at his little fair mustache, "of it all - of myself, first. I - it meant some- thing different to me from this at the start. I meant to " " I can go without you at any time, you know," said mama, accommodatingly. "The doctor, always, or Toddy, will be more than glad or--" But papa went with mama. Toddy was a bachelor and a captain and he came to drink afternoon tea and brought Letitia chocolates and Chinese beads. Yet papa did not like Cap- tain Todd, but then, as Letitia tried to fight against admitting, papas seem to have a way of objecting to pleasant things. So papa went with her. Corporal Leg'r6 held mama's scarlet cloak for her as they were starting. [25] LETITIA "It's bath-night, Letty," said she remind- ingly, which proves that she did think of Letitia, you see. Now the first thing learned by a Letitia and a Corporal Leg'r6 at the very beginning of life's setting-up, when they were but mere rookies both, is to obey. So face about, up-stairs they went, and Letty squared around, and slowly but accurately Cor- poral Leg'rW slipped buttons out of holes. Then he found towels. The passage to the bath-room was long and dim, so that Letitia, holding loosened garments with one hand, sought Corporal Leg're's hand with the other. Then he big and grave, filled the tub, which takes a bit of time. Letitia knew company affairs like an old ser- geant. "And you haven't said why company's cookie is in guard-house " she reminded him. "'Twas a question of that which they do call grammar, ma'am," said Corporal Leg'rW, as equal to equal in discussing company affairs and easing on the hot-water supply, " and which they [26] I- q! -!l I- - I 90 This page in the original text is blank. COM AND NON-COM do say too, no disrespect meant, ma'am, the off'cer in question ain't strong on. Says he to cookie, who'd had schoolin' 'fore his failin' led him to enlistin'-says he to cookie anent a small row in the kitchen "'Was you the man that did it ' says he to cookie, up for trial. " ' I were,' says cookie, solemn like. And there you are, and guard-house it was. And baker's bread and reveille is all we are like to get, reveille being dry hash as you know, ma'am, and it being the extent of 'Sisty's repertoire, as far as we're finding out," and Corporal Leg'r6 felt the tem- perature of the water with a judicious finger. Then he went. "Right outside the door," called Letitia. " Here, ma'am," answered Corporal Leg'r6. But a bath-room is a lonesome place, and water makes echoes. "Corporal Leg'r6 " " Ma'am, here." "Whistle, so I'll know." At attention, outside the door, Corporal Leg'r6 whistled - first call, reveille, assembly, mess-call [27] LETITIA Now porcelain tubs are big and slippery, and Letitias are but baby affairs, and so when, fol- lowing a splashing sound which might be a fall, she cried out, it could be depended upon that she was hurt. And so she was, and with her gleaming baby self lifted onto a towel on Corporal Leg'rW's big knees a moment after, gravely they examined the blue welt lifting on the little thigh. And then, after she had raised her chin for Corporal Leg'rW to button the band of the gown slipped over her head, she remembered to cry some more. It is a rare luxury with a Letitia, you see. Next Corporal Leg'r6 led her back by the hand down the long, dim passage. "Prayers," said he, not that he had instituted them but that, having learned what the manual of a Letitia is, a Corporal Leg'rW puts her through it unflinchingly. " Prayers," said he. "You too," said Letitia. It was the condi- tion. "Ma'am, yes," said he seriously as with one who knows his duty, and he and Letitia went [ 28 ] COM AND NON-COM down together. It was some preceding instruct- or's form of prayer Letitia favored, Corporal Leg'rE being no innovator. Four corners to my bed, said Letitia and the corporal together, Four angels at my bead. One to watch and one to pray, And two to bear my soul away. Matthew, Mark, Luke and 7obn, The bed be blest that I lie on. When Letitia next spoke, it was from her pillow. "You won't go " she asked. Corporal Leg'rW had fetched in his superior officer's shoes and a shoe-brush. " Ma'am, no," said he, getting to work. On the return of papa and mama, something waked Letty. Perhaps it was mama's voice speaking s