niform, seized a shoulder strap
with one hand and grabbed the Colonel's carefully trimmed mustache with
the other, and lifted a pair of laughing eyes, wonderfully like his
mother's, into his father's face. Mrs. Fortescue, at first as demure
as any C. O.'s wife in the world, suddenly smiled the radiant smile
that began with her eyes and ended with her lips. The woman's cunning
was too much for the man's strength. Colonel Fortescue put his arm
around his wife, as she laid the baby's rose-leaf face against his
father's bronzed cheek. Husband and wife looked into each other's eyes
and smiled. With this baby their lost youth was restored to them.
Once more the Colonel was a slim young lieutenant, and Mrs. Fortescue
was holding in her arms another dark-eyed, rose-leafed baby, now a
young soldier in the gray uniform of a military cadet. They,
themselves, could scarcely realize the flitting of the years. This new
baby was a glorious surprise in their later married life. The baby's
little hand had led them backward to the splendid sunrise of their
married happiness.

"It is because I love you so that I can't--I won't let you ride that
black devil, Betty dear," said the Colonel.

"How ridiculous!" replied Mrs. Fortescue. "You know I can ride as well
as you can--can't I, After-Clap?"

"Goo-goo-goo-goo!" replied the baby, positively.

"And I never could understand why you should take the trouble to get
angry with me," Mrs. Fortescue kept on, "when you can't stay angry with
me to save your life."

Colonel Fortescue made a last stand.

"But if I didn't get angry with you sometimes, Betty----"

"'Betty' sounds cheerful," interrupted Mrs. Fortescue, and then there
was peace between them.

Mrs. Fortescue and the Colonel went up-stairs to dress for dinner, and
Kettle, on watch in the hall, took charge of the After-Clap, who
commanded to be taken back into the office. Kettle, as always,
promptly obeyed, and putting the baby on Sergeant McGillicuddy's desk,
allowed the After-Clap to wreck everything in sight.

It had not been originally designed that Kettle should be the
After-Clap's nurse. The colored mammy who had nursed Beverley and
Anita with tender devotions having gone to her well-earned rest, Mrs.
Fortescue had determined to be very modern with the After-Clap. A
smart young trained nurse, in a ravishing cap, was his first nurse.
But the baby showed such marked preference for Kettle, and Kettle
dogging the bab