in his cap,
suggesting at a considerable distance the plume of the leaden "hero."
Sam was overcome with joy. He pulled the "hero" from his pocket (he
always carried it about with him) and compared the two warriors. The
"hero" was still unique, incomparable, but Sam realized that he was an
ideal which might be lived up to, not an impossible dream, not the
denizen of an inaccessible heaven. From that day he bent his little
energies to the task of removing his family to Homeville.

It is not so much strength as perseverance which moves the world.
Colonel Jinks had laid up a competence and had always intended to
retire, when he could afford it, to the market town. Among other
things, the school facilities would be much better in town than in the
country. Mrs. Jinks in a moment of folly took the side of the boy,
and, whatever may have been the controlling and predominating cause,
the fact is that, when Sam had attained the age of twelve, the Colonel
sold the farm and bought one of the best houses in Homeville. Sam at
once became a member of the John Wesley Brigade and showed an aptitude
for soldiering truly amazing. Before he was fourteen he was captain,
and wore, himself, the coveted white feather, and his military duties
became the absorbing interest of his life. He thought and spoke of
nothing else, and he was universally known in the town as "Captain
Jinks," which was often abbreviated to "Cap." No one ever passed
boyhood and youth in such congenial surroundings and with such complete
satisfaction as "Cap" Jinks of the John Wesley Boys' Brigade.

CHAPTER II

East Point

[Illustration]

But our relation to our environments will change, however much pleased
we may be with them, and "Cap" Jinks found himself gradually growing
too old for his brigade. The younger boys and their parents began to
complain that he was unreasonably standing in the way of their
promotion, and a fiery mustache gave signs to the world that he was now
something more than a boy. Still he could not bring himself to
relinquish the uniform and the white plume. A life without military
trimmings was not to be thought of, and there was no militia at
Homeville. Consequently he remained in the Boys' Brigade as long as he
could. When at last he saw that he must resign--he was now
two-and-twenty--he felt that there was only one course open to him, and
that was to join the army; and he broached this plan to h