e demanded.

The youth yawned again. Then he puckered his mouth to a little pucker.
His head, in truth, felt precisely like a melon, and there was an
unpleasant sensation at his stomach.

"Oh, Lord, I feel pretty bad," he said.

"Thunder!" exclaimed the other. "I hoped ye'd feel all right this
mornin'. Let's see th' bandage--I guess it's slipped." He began to
tinker at the wound in rather a clumsy way until the youth exploded.

"Gosh-dern it!" he said in sharp irritation; "you're the hangdest man I
ever saw! You wear muffs on your hands. Why in good thunderation
can't you be more easy? I'd rather you'd stand off an' throw guns at
it. Now, go slow, an' don't act as if you was nailing down carpet."

He glared with insolent command at his friend, but the latter answered
soothingly. "Well, well, come now, an' git some grub," he said. "Then,
maybe, yeh'll feel better."

At the fireside the loud young soldier watched over his comrade's wants
with tenderness and care. He was very busy marshaling the little black
vagabonds of tin cups and pouring into them the streaming, iron colored
mixture from a small and sooty tin pail. He had some fresh meat, which
he roasted hurriedly upon a stick. He sat down then and contemplated
the youth's appetite with glee.

The youth took note of a remarkable change in his comrade since those
days of camp life upon the river bank. He seemed no more to be
continually regarding the proportions of his personal prowess. He was
not furious at small words that pricked his conceits. He was no more a
loud young soldier. There was about him now a fine reliance. He
showed a quiet belief in his purposes and his abilities. And this
inward confidence evidently enabled him to be indifferent to little
words of other men aimed at him.

The youth reflected. He had been used to regarding his comrade as a
blatant child with an audacity grown from his inexperience,
thoughtless, headstrong, jealous, and filled with a tinsel courage. A
swaggering babe accustomed to strut in his own dooryard. The youth
wondered where had been born these new eyes; when his comrade had made
the great discovery that there were many men who would refuse to be
subjected by him. Apparently, the other had now climbed a peak of
wisdom from which he could perceive himself as a very wee thing. And
the youth saw that ever after it would be easier to live in his
friend's neighborhood.

His comrade balanced his ebony