! You are only saying that to comfort me. You will
praise me so."

"Oh no I won't," said the old soldier, gruffly. "I won't give you a bit
more than's good for you, boy. When I say you have done well it means
you have done well. You won't get any flattery out of me. All this
trouble that we are going through is no more than you must expect. Look
what we are doing, and how we stand."

Serge was sitting down on a stone, busily employed as he talked
polishing and sharpening his sword as it lay across his knees, and he
did not trouble himself to look up at his young companion, but kept on
lecturing him in a bluff, good-humoured way, smiling to himself with
satisfaction all the time.

"Now here we are, trying to overtake our army, which had some days the
start of us. If I say what you think isn't right, you stop me. Well,
our army has invaded the country of these Gallic tribes. The Gauls are
no fools. They know Caius Julius has come to conquer them, and they
don't want to be conquered. Their idea is to invade Rome and conquer
us. Well, my boy, we have come into their country, and every man who
can fight has been called upon to come and fight against us, so that
like a big crop in a cultivated land, what has been planted has come up
all over. And this crop is fighting men with swords and spears. Now
we--you and me and the driver, and we ought to put the horses in, bless
'em, for they've done wonders--have come after the army, marching
through this bristling crop, and you, without taking any account of what
a hard job it is to get through, keep on grumbling and saying everything
is bad."

"And so it is, Serge."

"It arn't, boy!" cried the old soldier, firmly, and letting his sword
rest, brightly polished and sharp as it was, he now raised his head and
looked smilingly in the boy's face. "Haven't you got proof of it that
things are not as bad as you say?"

"No," cried Marcus, angrily. "I was entrusted with a message to my
father and Caius Julius, and I have not done my task."

"Not yet, boy, but you are going to at the first chance. Why, look
here, my lad, if things were half as bad as you say they are we
shouldn't be here. If we have escaped once from being taken or killed
we have got through a dozen times. Look at us. Why, we haven't got a
scratch, and here we are, better, ever so much, than when we started."

"Better?" cried Marcus.

"Yes, better. We are a bit hungry."

"I tell you I'm half