CHAPTER XI

THE FIRST RECRUIT

I CAN'T write much, for I never have any time. But I must tell about Pat.

He came over to us the very first day after we heard we were at war.

"Isn't this grand!" were his first words.

We had only just finished breakfast and were still in the schoolroom.

"It's rather awful!" I said.

"Shan't we smash that old Kaiser!" said Pat. "And there's no more school for me. I'm off to join an Oirish regiment if I can."

"But they won't take you, will they? And haven't you to go to Woolwich or Sandhurst first?"

"Do you think I'm going to grind at books again? No, I'll enlist as a private and work my way up."

"And what does your aunt say?"

"She has set down her slender little foot and says 'No,' but she's neither father nor mother, and for once she'll have to give way."

"She is taking the place of your father and mother," I said. "You won't break her heart, Pat, by running away from her?"

"Faix, an' I won't, ye soft-hearted gossoon! She'll rear her head in glory when once I'm off!"

"Oh!" said Denys. "Why shouldn't I go? You're only a year older, and I'm quite as tall. How are you going to manage, Pat?"

"Well, ye see, I have a cousin at Dublin, a captain in the Royal Irish Fusiliers. I've just sent a wire to him. He'll run it for me, and make it smooth for the aunt!"

"Oh, I do hope you'll go!" cried Lynette and me both together. "We mean to go down to the village at once and make all the men we see enlist straight away!"

"I say, do you think your cousin could fix it for me somehow?" said Denys.

"What does your old grandsire say?" said Pat, with a twinkle in his eyes. "He could work it if any one could. He's an old soldier."

"Oh, come on out!" cried Aylwin. "I'm out of the running, but I must do something. I should think getting recruits is the best thing to work at now!"

As we all trooped out of the garden, grandfather looked out of his window and called to us.

Denys ran up.

"Anything that I can do?"

"Yes, ride into the town and get a paper and the latest news," said grandfather.

Denys was delighted. He and Aylwin have been riding just lately with one of the grooms. Grandfather told them they might, and actually bought another horse. And then Pat declared he would go with him. So then Lynette and I thought we would like to get the trap out and drive off there too, and Aylwin was quite willing to come with us.

Pat went on to hire a horse from the little inn not far off. He knew grandfather would not let him have one of his horses, as he generally meets with some accident. He says himself he's the unluckiest chap in the world.

In a very little time we got ready and set off. Of course Puff would come too. It was a very hot morning, but there was a breeze coming in from the sea. And we all felt rather jolly in spite of the war. I'm afraid we do love anything exciting, and of course we quite expected we should have a big naval battle somewhere first, and smash up all the German ships, and then have a battle on land somewhere and smash up all the Germans and take the Kaiser prisoner!

We could talk of nothing else.

Aylwin drove fast and furiously, but of course Pat and Denys soon got out of sight, and we stopped once to speak to some men who were talking about the war.

They laughed when we asked them if they were going to enlist, and said in their broad Scotch:

"We'll wait a wee bit, till the Keeser comes over to our shore."

And when we found we could make nothing of them, we drove on.

We got to the town at last, and Aylwin soon got hold of a paper.

But there wasn't much more news, except a lot of talk about what was going to happen. The Belgians were fighting bravely and keeping the Germans at bay. And then presently we saw Denys, and he rode up to us with rather a red face.

"Pat has gone and done it!" he said. "Isn't he splendid? He saw a fellow he knew, who had just enlisted at the town hall, and he dragged him off, and it's done and no one can undo it."

"Oh, what will Miss Douglas say?" I cried. "I feel sorry he has done it in such a hurry. I thought he wanted to be in an Irish regiment!"

"Well, this is one; that's what made him do it. They're recruiting for one of the battalions in the Irish Rifles. I could have joined too if I had told a lie about my age."

I felt very glad he had not, for though I would love Denys to be a soldier, I shouldn't love him to get into the Army by telling a lie.

And presently Pat came riding towards us with a flushed, triumphant face.

We should like to have cheered him, only we were in the streets of a town. He was very excited, and said he must gallop home to tell his aunt. He tore off, and I said to Aylwin that I was sure he would do something to his horse before he got home.

Sure enough, we heard afterwards he had tried to leap a gate instead of going through it, and he was thrown, and his right arm so badly sprained that Miss Douglas sent for the doctor, and he had to keep it in a sling, and couldn't join his regiment. And Miss Douglas made a great fuss at first, but at last gave way, only she managed to get him transferred to the cousin's regiment in Ireland, and he promised to look after him, and if there was a chance of his getting a commission, he would help him to get it.

And a fortnight after, Pat came to see us and wish us good-bye. The boys were on the beach, and I would have been there too, but Aylwin had torn a large hole in his jersey, and he wanted to wear it, so I was mending it for him in the schoolroom. I'm afraid I was cobbling it, for I was in a great hurry to join them. They were going to talk to the fishermen about the war, and I was longing to help in the talk.

Pat burst into the room as he always did.

"An' shure it's the little mother by herself!" he cried. "Where are the flock?"

"On the beach. Oh, do stop a minute, Pat. I've nearly finished this, and then I'll come with you. Do tell me what you've been doing!"

"I leave by the night boat this very evening," he said, swinging himself up to the table, where he sat and looked at me with his bright, twinkling eyes.

"How splendid! And are you going straight over with the first lot of soldiers?"

"Arrah! You are verdant! Why, they're trainin' and whacking me into shape for a month or two, and then there'll be practice at the butts, and the bayonet charge, and goodness knows what else beside. I'll be bullied by drill-sergeants, and captains, and majors, and won't be able to call me soul me own! But thank the stars I can shoot, and ride, and do a bit of drill."

"But the time will soon pass, Pat, and whatever you have to do will be for your king and country. Oh, I would give worlds to be you! It's too bad that I should be a girl. I somehow never thought it would come so soon. I can't believe it yet. The newspapers take one's breath away. You'll come and say good-bye before you go to the front!"

"I shall be in Ireland, me dear ould counthry! And the d—deuce knows—well, dickens—if you don't like that—when I'll be back here. 'Tis scant notice soldiers will get when they're wanted. But I'll send you my address, Grisel, and you'll write one of your mothery letters to cheer me up and keep me going straight!"

"I will write, Pat, and you won't gamble, or smoke too much, or swear, will you? You will be a brave, upright Britisher, and remember that God comes first, and then your king and country, and yourself last!"

"Sure, meself is just as modest as a violet," said Pat, twinkling all over; "it will be the uniform and muscle will do what's wanted; the poor Pat will be nowheres! I shan't forget you 'Hold Fasts'!"

"I wish you'd 'hold fast' yourself, Pat!"

"But what on earth to? I promise you I'll take a grip of my rifle and bayonet. I wasn't brought up to traditions of mottoes and pious precepts like the lot of you!"

"You can hold fast to God's own hand, Pat, that's the only thing in heaven and earth that will never give way. Miss Garton has taught me that."

I didn't mind talking to Pat seriously, for he seemed to like it.

"Ah," he said, heaving a sigh, "I'm only a plain earth-worm. I can't cotton to all those invisible things that you believe."

"But you won't learn about them, or read them, Pat. Wait a moment!"

I dashed out of the room, and seized hold of a little old Testament of father's. He used to take it in his pocket to read to the poor people in the village. I did love it, but I felt that if Pat would take it, he ought to have it.

"Look here, Pat," I said, "if you go out to France to fight, you ought to know about these things. Suppose you were to be shot! Will you take this and promise to read it, if you only read one verse every day?"

Pat took the Testament, looked at it, then at me.

"It has your father's name in it. You must write mine in, or I shall be keeping another person's property."

So I got a pen and ink and wrote his name in it, and above his name, I wrote the verse which Miss Garton had given me:

"I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee."

He put it into his pocket and patted it. "It will be my mascot," he said. "Testaments always stop bullets, don't they?"

"Oh, Pat, don't!" I cried. "Do be serious for once! Do promise me you will read it."

"All serene! Sure, my honey, I'll promise anything to keep the tears away from those grey eyes of yours, and bring the smile to your lips. And you'll be having Pat returning one day covered with medals and glory, and he won't forget the little book which is lying in his pocket so snug."

I could say no more. My mending was done, so I ran and got my hat, and Pat and I overtook the others, who were holding quite a Parliament with the fishermen.

They were awfully glad to see Pat, only he couldn't stay long, and when he solemnly shook hands with us one by one, and wished us good-bye, I felt a lump coming up in my throat. He was so gay and handsome and boyish! I couldn't at the last moment bear to think of him fighting like a fury, though I wanted him so much to go.

He wrung my hand till I nearly screamed with the pain.

"I'm going away a boy," he said, "but I'm coming back a man, and then I'll marry Grisel, if she'll have me!"

The boys shouted with laughter.

"Long-legged Granny Grisel! Why, what good would she do you?"

"She'd mend me up—clothes, body, and soul," said Pat, "and she'd infuse warmth and spirit into me heart, and drag me after her through Heaven's Gate itself!"

And then he bounded away, and that was the last we saw of him. But I prayed hard that night to God that He would lead him, and teach him to serve God first.

It was that evening that we began to discuss the war.

"It's very strange and worrying," I said; "I never thought it would be so difficult. I did not think there would be two sides to it."

"What's the row?" asked Denys.

"Well, it's like this. Think of men killing each other, not one man killing one man, but hundreds killing hundreds! It's wicked and cruel and awful! But then think of our Cause, and our Motherland, and our King; why, then it's great and good and glorious to do it! We're fighting for the Right, for our homes, for our Empire! First I think one thing and then another, and I get quite muddled and desperate over it all. What can the angels think when they look down? What does God think?"

"People said we should never have war again, we were too civilised for such brutal methods of settling differences," said Denys thoughtfully, "but of course every nation has been preparing and getting ready for it except ourselves."

"I remember Captain Rogers saying," said Aylwin, "that the scientific machinery of war had got to such a pitch that it would make nations very afraid of starting it. He said a big war might mean the extermination of races!"

"Oh, what long words!" gasped Lynette. "I wish we could see Captain Rogers again. How he will wish he was able to fight!"

"But you don't see my difficulty," I said. "Is war a glory or a curse?"

"Oh, it's both," said Denys, a little impatiently. "Don't cut up things into such bits, Grizzy; that's so like a woman. One minute you'll be girding on the warriors' swords and waving banners above their heads, and the next crying quarts of tears at the thought of the men they're going to kill!"

"Yes, that's just it," I said; "and it's the same puzzle over sport and shooting. It's most exciting following the hounds, but when it means a poor desperate tired-out fox being torn to bits, it's awful, and it's like that with shooting. The pheasants need not have their lives taken when they're so happy in the woods, and the dear little soft rabbits do nobody any harm."

"Oh, dry up!" said Aylwin. "If you're going to funk war when it comes, you aren't a member of our Empire League!"

"Funk it!" I cried. "I glory in it! I should love to see you go off to the front to-morrow. I'd go myself to-day if I could get a chance. It's no good talking to boys. They never can understand things!"

"Girls are too soft-hearted," said Denys, "and too small-minded! In war you don't think of the man you may be up against, but of what you're fighting for! If I was in the fighting line now, I would be seeing the massacre of the Belgian women and children, and the crushing of all the poor weak nations, and the trampling down by the iron, arrogant foot of Germany. She's played a dastardly coward's part, making friends with us, coming over to spy out all our weaknesses, and pretending to like us when she knew she hated us, and meant to do for us the first chance she got. And we're fighting for our country, our race, our own homes and women and children!"

"When Denys gets on Empire talk," said Lynette, "he's grand. He ought to be in Parliament!"

"Oh, I know, I know!" I cried, feeling ashamed that I ever questioned our right to fight. "I mustn't imagine too much the killing part. And I hope God will give us the victory very soon, and let it all be over!"

"Why, we haven't properly begun yet!" shouted the boys.

I said no more, but when I went to bed, I prayed for Pat, and I asked God to teach him out of father's Testament what he didn't know, and ought to understand. And now we spend all our days talking about the war to everybody, and trying to get them to enlist. And Aunt Isobel has bought a lot of khaki wool, and Lynette and I are beginning to knit scarves and mittens.

The holidays are flying, but they're strange holidays. We don't go out and amuse ourselves all day long by the sea, as we meant to do. The war seems to have altered everything. Yesterday we heard at last from Lincolnshire. Only one of the twelve boys we wrote to answered, but he wrote for all the rest, and nine of them are enlisting. They had begun to do it before Denys wrote. We are delighted. Two of them are under size, and one of them is not strong enough. It was Tom Bradley who wrote, and he ended his letter like this:

"Our parson tells of us we be a war party that the King will be proud of and we says we was teached our dooty to our flag by Master Denys!"

Denys was awfully proud and pleased when he read that, and Aylwin says it isn't fair he should always get the glory and honour of that League when we all worked for it and belonged to it. But I say that nothing matters as long as they know their duty and do it.

And to-day we saw another thing that interested us. Gervas Carrington, whom we used to know, has got his commission. It was in the newspaper. He's older than Denys, but it makes Denys wild to think he must go back to school again, and he has determined to have one more talk with grandfather about it.

I do wish something could be done.

As Denys says, he was born into the world quite two years too late.