em 'Patriotic
Societies.' It was our ancestors as fought for freedom that they made
the societies for. Our ancestors were patriotic and fought for freedom
oncet, and now we're going to be patriotic and stick by the government
just like they did."

"Yes, they fought for freedom, that's true. And what are the Cubapinos
fighting for?" asked the young man.

"Oh, shucks!" cried Reddy. "I ain't a-going to argher with you. What
were we talking about? Oh, yes. We were saying that them societies
fight together. They do fight a good deal, that's a fact, and there's
no end of trouble in our militia battalion too. They all want to be
captain, and they don't get on somehow as well as the fire companies.
But still it's a fine thing to see all this military spirit. I didn't
see a uniform for years, and now you can't hire a man to dig a ditch
who hasn't got a stripe on one leg of his trousers at any rate. Girls
like soldiers, I tell you, and they like pensions too. I've just got
married myself. My wife is seventeen. Now I've drawed my pension for
nearly forty years, and she'll draw it for sixty more if she has any
luck; that'll make over a hundred. That's something like. Why, if one
of these fellows is twenty now and marries a girl of seventeen when
he's ninety, and she lives till she's ninety, they can keep drawing
money for a hundred and fifty years, and no mistake. It's better than a
savings bank. Here they come!"

The procession had formed round the corner at the other end of the main
street, and now the band began to play, and the column could be seen
advancing. First the band passed with an escort of small boys running
along in the gutter on either side. Then came two carriages containing
the heroes, two in each. They held themselves stiffly and took off
their hats, and no one would have supposed that they had drunk too much
if the fact had not been universally understood by the public. Behind
them came a line of other carriages in which were seated the magnates
of the town, including the office-holders and the prominent business
men. They all had that self-important air which is inseparable from
such shows and which denotes that the individual is feeling either like
a great man or a fool. Then came the militia battalion, a rather
shamefaced lot of young men who seemed to be painfully aware that they
were not at all real heroes like the soldiers in the carriages, but
merely make-believe imi