A SEND-OFF FROM THE "SPHERE"
Hal Overton came into the parlor, a few days later, to find his mother
studying a pair of visiting cards.
"I was out, a little while ago, and found these cards under the door
when I returned," explained Mrs. Overton, handing the cards to her son.
"Mr. and Mrs. Redding," Hal read from the pasteboards. "Shall you return
their call, Mother?"
"I don't believe I shall. But you have something there to show me?"
"Yes; I met the postman on the street, and he handed me a letter--from
the War Department."
"Your orders?"
"Yes, Mother."
"What regiment? Where are you to be stationed?" asked Mrs. Overton
eagerly.
"Which question shall I answer first, Mother?" the Army boy queried,
half-teasingly.
"Your station?"
"Fort Butler."
"Where on earth is that?"
"In Texas, on the border."
"Thank goodness, it's in the United States," exclaimed Mrs. Overton
fervently. "I was afraid you'd be sent back to the Philippines, or to
Guam."
"The Navy garrisons the island of Guam, Mother."
"Well, then, to Alaska, or to some other outlandish place. I'm glad
you're to go to some place where I can get on the cars and go to see
you."
There was to come a time in the no distant future when her splendid son
would be called upon to go where she could not follow--a time when Hal
and his associates would be over-seas fighting for the democracy of the
world, as well as for the existence of their beloved homeland.
"And some of my first savings as an officer will go to pay your fare,
Mother. But you don't seem interested in the regiment, after all."
"Well, which regiment is it?"
"The Thirty-seventh Infantry, Colonel Wheatman."
"Would you rather have gone to the Thirty-fourth?"
"For many reasons, much rather. But I'm contented to go wherever Uncle
Sam sends me. That's the only right way for a soldier to feel."
"I would have liked the Thirty-fourth better, too," remarked Mrs.
Overton thoughtfully. "The Thirty-fourth is soon due to be back from the
Philippines, while your new Thirty-seventh may just be getting ready to
start there."
"And the last bit of my news, Mother, is that I am to report for duty
with my new regiment on September fifteenth."
"So soon?" cried Mrs. Overton, her voice keen with disappointment. "Why,
it seems as though you had come home only yesterday. And now you must
run away again."
"All in the soldier's game. But it won't be long before you'll be coming
out to visit me."
"You have no house on the post, and you won't have any place to keep me
if I come, Hal."
"A bachelor officer, Mother, must be very attentive to the married women
on the post. Then one of the married women will invite his mother to
visit at her quarters."
"You don't have to _flirt_ with married women, I hope?"
"Not so you could notice it, Mother," replied Lieutenant Hal gravely.
"An officer, we are taught in the Army, is the descendant of the knight
of old. So the officer must be careful to be always very respectful with
all women. If he fails in that obligation his brother officers make his
stay in the Army so disagreeable that he's glad to get out of the Army
altogether."
"Is the whole regiment stationed at Fort Cutler?"
"Fort Butler, Mother. No; only the second battalion of the regiment.
Major Tipton will be my immediate commanding officer. And now you'll
excuse me, won't you?"
"You're going around to Noll's?"
"Yes. We made a request that we be assigned to the same battalion. I'm
mighty anxious to know whether it has been convenient to grant our
wish."
"Does Mr. Ad Interim have anything to with _that_?" demanded Mrs.
Overton.
"I believe not," laughed Hal, then vanished through the doorway.
"Strange to me what complete fascination there can be about the Army,"
mused Mrs. Overton. "That boy of mine, now that he's ordered to join his
regiment again, is wholly and unreasonably happy."
Noll had received his orders just before Hal arrived. Lieutenant Terry
was also ordered to Fort Butler.
"There isn't a thing left that we can ask for!" exclaimed Hal
contentedly.
"I hope we'll have as good luck with each step upward," beamed young
Terry.
"There may come a time in our upward progress when we can't serve in the
same regiment," warned Hal. "That will be when we become
lieutenant-colonels. The present law allows but one lieutenant-colonel
to a regiment, you know."
"Oh, as far as that's concerned, cheer up, chum," grinned Lieutenant
Noll. "Before we get anywhere near as high as lieutenant-colonel we may
each be occupying a two-by-six in a soldiers' cemetery."
"It would please the Hepburns and Sayles better if we did now," laughed
Hal. "But let's forget malice toward others--we've been able to get
everything on earth that we've wanted so far. Noll, to-morrow morning,
we must pay another visit to Sergeant Wright."
Several times since their return home the Army boys had been to call on
Wright, a retired old Army sergeant living in this Jersey town. It was
Sergeant Wright who had first inspired the boys with a desire for the
Army life.
"We've got several visits to make, and very little time in which to do
it," decided Noll.
It is difficult, indeed, to keep the press from learning all that is
happening. The next morning the _Sphere_ contained this paragraph:
"Most of our citizens will be glad to learn that Lieutenants Overton and
Terry, of the Regular Army, are leaving soon to go to their new station
in far-away Texas."
There was nothing libelous in that paragraph. It could be taken either
way--as a piece of congratulation or as a covert sneer. So Hal and Noll
concluded to let it pass as a joke, and each clipped out the paragraph
to show at Fort Butler.
All the good home times ended at last. Divided between pangs of regret
and eager thoughts of the new service as line officers, Hal and Noll
boarded a train one morning and started west.
The new life, the goal of their youthful dreams, lay before them. What
would it bring?