in using a sword and spear. It arn't to be
done, no matter how you practise."

"Well, I mean to get as perfect as I can, and you are going on teaching
me."

"Nay," said the old man; "once a fool don't mean always a fool. I am
going to put all these away, and you have got to forget it."

"No!" cried the boy, angrily. "I shall never forget what you've taught
me, Serge--never; and I'm not going to have my things put away. You
shall keep them here, as you have since you fetched them home one after
the other as they were made."

"And all too big for you, so that you might fill up and grow into them,"
said the old soldier, with a sigh of regret.

"And I have grown, ever so much, Serge."

"You have, lad; and you're big-boned, and you'll make a big man one of
these days. You were framing finely for a soldier, my boy. But that's
all over now."

"No, it isn't," cried the boy, impatiently, "and you shall go on
teaching me about all the fighting and the men's shields being all
linked together so that the enemy shouldn't break through the serried
ranks."

"Nay, my lad," sighed the old warrior; "that was all very grand, but I
don't know what I could have been thinking about to let you persuade me
to teach you what I did, all going against the master's orders as it
was. I suppose I liked it, for it put me in mind of the old days; but I
seem to have come to myself like and know better now. You tempted me,
my lad, and I'm afraid I tempted you; but no more of it. I'm sorry for
what's done, and the best way to be sorry for it is to own up and never
do so any more."

"Then you mean that you're to leave off teaching me?"

"Yes, my lad; that's so."

"And suppose I say, as your master: `you shall go on.' What then?"

"I should say: `you're not going to disobey your father's orders any
more, but to give all this soldiering up like a man.'"

"Serge!"

"That's right, my lad, and I know you aren't going to set your face
against what the master says I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yes, Serge," said the boy, sadly; "but it seems very hard."

"It do, boy, very, very hard; but orders are orders, and I forgot to
teach you what is the first thing a soldier has to learn."

"What's that, Serge? How to use his sword and shield? You did teach me
that."

"No, that's not what I meant. What a soldier has to learn first is to
obey orders, and I want to teach you that now."

Marcus was silent for a while, as he stood looking wistf