suggested that he would see the milkman that very evening,
and at nine o'clock the next morning, he would go to the officer in
charge of mounts, and by ten o'clock Kettle, as soon as he had finished
washing up the breakfast things and had taken the After-Clap for his
airing in the baby carriage, could step down to the recruiting office
and enlist.

Everything looked rosy to Kettle. That night, at dinner, Kettle was
radiant and informed Mrs. Fortescue, between the fish and the roast,
that he had "done found his duty and was a-goin' to do it."

Mrs. Fortescue had some curiosity to know what this new duty of
Kettle's was, but Kettle maintained a mysterious silence, only
admitting that it would not take him away from "Miss Betty and the
baby."

Next morning, however, in the cold light of day, the proposition had
lost something of its charms for Kettle. The yellow stripes down his
legs did not appear quite so overwhelmingly fascinating. He remembered
that Sergeant McGillicuddy was afraid to ride in the buggy behind the
milkman's horse. Sergeant Halligan did not give Kettle any time to
repent of his decision, and promptly appeared at ten o'clock and
escorted Kettle to the recruiting office. The recruiting sergeant was
on hand and Sergeant Halligan explained Kettle's martial enthusiasm.
Something like a wink passed between Sergeant Halligan and Gully, the
recruiting sergeant, who agreed to enlist Kettle, under the name of
Solomon Ezekiel Pickup, as a unit in the army of the United States.

A sudden illumination came to Kettle. "Yon c'yarn' enlist me in no
white regiment," cried Kettle to Sergeant Halligan, "I'm a nigger and
you have to put me in a nigger regiment."

"Oh, that's all right," responded Sergeant Halligan, airily, "we can
get you in all right, and we'll be proud to have you. Won't we, Gully?"

"Certainly," replied Sergeant Gully, "we can fix that up. It's fixed
up already."

The rapidity of the proceedings rather startled Kettle.

"But doan' the doctor have to thump me, and pound me, and count my
teeth?" he asked. Kettle had not spent twenty years at army posts
without finding out something.

"No, indeed," answered Sergeant Gully, who was a chum of Sergeant
Halligan, "not with such a husky feller as you. I can thump and pound
and count your teeth."

With that Gully made a physical examination of Kettle, and declared
that no surgeon who ever lived would turn down such a magnificent
specimen of