第10章 SOLDIER BOY AND THE MEXICAN PLUG(2)

Half-way down,it was kind of neck and neck,and anybody's race and nobody's.Then,what should happen but a cow steps out and puts her head down to munch grass,with her broadside to the battalion,and they a-coming like the wind;they split apart to flank her,but SHE?-why,she drove the spurs home and soared over that cow like a bird!and on she went,and cleared the last hurdle solitary and alone,the army letting loose the grand yell,and she skipped from the horse the same as if he had been standing still,and made her bow,and everybody crowded around to congratulate,and they gave her the bugle,and she put it to her lips and blew 'boots and saddles'to see how it would go,and BB was as proud as you can't think!And he said,'Take Soldier Boy,and don't pass him back till I ask for him!'and I can tell you he wouldn't have said that to any other person on this planet.That was two months and more ago,and nobody has been on my back since but the Corporal-General Seventh Cavalry and Flag-Lieutenant of the Ninth Dragoons,U.S.A.,-on whom be peace!""Amen.I listen -tell me more."

"She set to work and organized the Sixteen,and called it the First Battalion Rocky Mountain Rangers,U.S.A.,and she wanted to be bugler,but they elected her Lieutenant-General and Bugler.So she ranks her uncle the commandant,who is only a Brigadier.And doesn't she train those little people!Ask the Indians,ask the traders,ask the soldiers;they'll tell you.She has been at it from the first day.Every morning they go clattering down into the plain,and there she sits on my back with her bugle at her mouth and sounds the orders and puts them through the evolutions for an hour or more;and it is too beautiful for anything to see those ponies dissolve from one formation into another,and waltz about,and break,and scatter,and form again,always moving,always graceful,now trotting,now galloping,and so on,sometimes near by,sometimes in the distance,all just like a state ball,you know,and sometimes she can't hold herself any longer,but sounds the 'charge,'and turns me loose!and you can take my word for it,if the battalion hasn't too much of a start we catch up and go over the breastworks with the front line.

"Yes,they are soldiers,those little people;and healthy,too,not ailing any more,the way they used to be sometimes.It's because of her drill.She's got a fort,now -Fort Fanny Marsh.Major-General Tommy Drake planned it out,and the Seventh and Dragoons built it.Tommy is the Colonel's son,and is fifteen and the oldest in the Battalion;Fanny Marsh is Brigadier-General,and is next oldest -over thirteen.She is daughter of Captain Marsh,Company B,Seventh Cavalry.Lieutenant-General Alison is the youngest by considerable;I think she is about nine and a half or three-quarters.Her military rig,as Lieutenant-General,isn't for business,it's for dress parade,because the ladies made it.They say they got it out of the Middle Ages -out of a book -and it is all red and blue and white silks and satins and velvets;tights,trunks,sword,doublet with slashed sleeves,short cape,cap with just one feather in it;I've heard them name these things;they got them out of the book;she's dressed like a page,of old times,they say.It's the daintiest outfit that ever was -you will say so,when you see it.She's lovely in it -oh,just a dream!In some ways she is just her age,but in others she's as old as her uncle,I think.She is very learned.She teaches her uncle his book.Ihave seen her sitting by with the book and reciting to him what is in it,so that he can learn to do it himself.

"Every Saturday she hires little Injuns to garrison her fort;then she lays siege to it,and makes military approaches by make-believe trenches in make-believe night,and finally at make-believe dawn she draws her sword and sounds the assault and takes it by storm.

It is for practice.And she has invented a bugle-call all by herself,out of her own head,and it's a stirring one,and the prettiest in the service.It's to call ME -it's never used for anything else.She taught it to me,and told me what it says:'ITIS I,SOLDIER -COME!'and when those thrilling notes come floating down the distance I hear them without fail,even if I am two miles away;and then -oh,then you should see my heels get down to business!