that boy the same way I do my men,
eh, dear?"

"It's the only way to govern boys or soldiers," she laughed back
from the head of the companionway. "Then both boy and soldier will
keep their promises to you."

The Major watched her go below, then said to himself, "She's
right--she's always right. She was right to come north, and bring
him, too. But I am a coward, for I daren't tell her she'll have to
part from him, or from me, some day. He will have to be sent to the
front again; he can't grow up unlearned, untaught, and there are no
schools in our Arctic world, and she must go with him, or stay with
me; but I can't tell her. Yes, I'm a coward." But Major Lysle was
the only person in all the world who would have thought or said so.

"And will you tell me how Sergeant Black won his stripes, mother,
before I go to sleep?" begged Graham.

"Yes, little 'North-West,'" she replied, using the pet name the men
in barracks frequently called the child. "It's just a wee story of
one man fighting it out alone--just alone, single-handed--with no
reinforcements but his own courage, his own self-reliance."

"That's just what father says, isn't it, mother, to just do things
yourself?" asked the boy.

"That's it, dear, and that is what Sergeant Black did. He was only
corporal then, and he was dispatched from headquarters to arrest
some desperate horse thieves who were trying to drive a magnificent
bunch of animals across the boundary line into the United States,
and then sell them. These men were breaking two laws. They had not
only stolen the horses, but were trying to evade the American
Customs. Your father always called them 'The Rapparees,' for they
were Irish, and fighters, and known from the Red River to the
Rockies as plunderers and desperadoes. There was some trouble to
the north at the same time; barracks was pretty well thinned; not
a man could be spared to help him. But when Corporal Black got his
instructions and listened to the commanding officer say, 'If that
detachment returns from the Qu'Appelle Valley within twenty-four
hours, I'll order them out to assist you, corporal,' the plucky
little soldier just stood erect, clicked his heels together,
saluted, and replied, 'I can do it alone, sir.'

"'I notice you don't say you _think_ you can do it alone,' remarked
the officer dryly. He was a lenient man and often conversed with
his men.

"'It is not my place to _think_, sir. I've just got to _do_,'
replied the corp