the old man, vehemently. "Tom shall be a
brigadier general if the war lasts one year more. I should feel like a
whipped kitten if that warrant was altered."

"The matter has been fully and fairly considered at head-quarters, and
there is no such thing as altering the decision now; so, Tom, you can put
the stripes on your arm just as soon as you please."

Hapgood insisted, the surgeon insisted, and the captain insisted; and Tom
was too sick to hold way with them in an argument, and his name was placed
upon the roster of the company as a sergeant. He was proud of the
distinction which had been conferred upon him, though he thought Hapgood,
as an older and abler soldier, was better entitled to the honor than
himself.

It was six weeks before Tom was able to enter upon the actual enjoyment of
the well-merited promotion which he had won by his gallantry; but when he
appeared before the company with the chevron of the sergeant upon his arm,
he was lustily cheered by his comrades, and it was evident that the
appointment was a very popular one. Not even the grumblers, of whom there
is a full quota in every regiment, deemed it prudent to growl at the
decision of the officers. If any one ventured to suggest that he was too
young to be placed over older and stronger men, his friends replied, that
men in the army were measured by bravery and skill, not by years.

If my young readers wish to know why Tom's appointment was so well
received by his companions in arms, I can only reply, that he had not only
been brave and cheerful in the midst of peril and hardship, but he was
kind and obliging to his comrades. He had always been willing to help
those that needed help, to sympathize with those in trouble, and generally
to do all he could to render those around him happy.

Above all these considerations, Tom was a young man of high principle. He
had obeyed his mother's parting injunction, often repeated in the letters
which came to him from home, and had faithfully "read his Testament."
Without being a hypocrite or a canting saint, Tom carried about with him
the true elements of Christian character.

Tom had fought a greater battle than that in which he had been engaged at
Bull Run a hundred times, in resisting the temptations which beset him
from within and without. True to God and true to himself, he had won the
victory. Though his lot was cast in the midst of men who swore, gambled,
and drank liquor, he had shunned these vices,