A LITTLE RIPPLE OF PATRIOTISM
"You are bold, my son, at any rate," murmured my heathen priest,
blandly smiling through me into vacancy. "The last man to knock at
the gate of Tzin Piaôu with his foot, found the foot grown fast to
the stone. They had to cut it off to set him free. That must have
been a hundred years ago, more or less. I forget. The foot, with
the gate-post attached to it, is standing in the Great Hall of the
Images. Relic, you know. It's rather interesting, it's so out of
the common run of relics. You might like to glance at it?"
"No, indeed," I said hastily. Something in my old gentleman's
blandness was anything but reassuring. "I beg Tzin Piaôu's pardon, I
am sure," said I. "And," said I, pulling out my purse, "if in my
hurry I was unfortunate enough to injure the door in any way, I'd be
more than glad--"
"Not at all, not at all," my old gentleman assured me. "It's a very
solid door, indeed."
"I'm so glad of that," said I, putting up my purse.
"Still," purred the old gentleman thoughtfully, "of course one can
never tell just how a god may feel about irreverence. In cases of
doubt, the small precaution of an offering--"
I handed him a piece of gold, and he stowed it away, very carefully,
in his girdle, just over the pit of his stomach. "My son," he said
benignantly, "through me, his representative, T'zin Piaôu deigns to
thank you and assure you that all is forgotten."
Receiving the thanks of a god was such an unwonted experience to me
that I was not sure I could acknowledge them in proper form. So I
bowed, and held my tongue. There are worse moves, in tight places,
for one who can bow with dignity.
"And now, my son," said my old gentleman, poking subconsciously with
the forefinger of his right hand at a hard spot just over his
stomach, "tell me what has put you out. For you are put out."
"It's your infernal Little Gods," said I, boldly. "I'm sick of them."
"My infernal Little Gods!" he murmured. "What a curious conjunction
of contradictory terms. And so you are sick of them. Why?"
"Their taste seems to run wholly to Tragedy," I complained, "and such
dingy Tragedy. And such unnecessary Tragedy. How they do work to
entangle some childish negro giant, some weak simpleton of a common
soldier--"
My old gentleman yawned, hard as he strove to conceal the fact. "You
must excuse me," he purred, when he saw that I had seen, "but really,
at this hour-- Suppose," he suggested, sinking back on his slab,
"you watch a Farce or two, by way of change. How will that do?"
"If you think there are any Farces in the Orient," I said doubtfully,
"I'm sure I'd be very glad--"
"It's easy to find out," said he, and moved his hand a little, and--I
heard a voice speaking, an even, drawling, dryly humorous voice.
This is what it said.
"Want passes, eh? Twelve-hour passes? H'm," says the Captain. Me
and Big Terry Clancy and three or four others was standin' up in
front of him with three months' pay in our blouses, lookin' pleasant
and harmless for a fare-ye-well. "H'm," he says, "you're a fine
bunch. Can you remember you're in Maniller now, not Samar?"
"We can, sir," says Terry.
"H'm. Take your mouth out fr'm under your chin, Clancy," says th'
Old Man. "It looks better. H'm. Well, go along with ye, and if ye
get into trouble ast th' Lord to have mercy on your crazy heads, for
ye know well by this time that I won't," he says.
With that he signs the passes, an' that's where he let us all in for
it. Yes, sir, me and Terry an' th' Old Man and the Regiment and the
Little Brown Brother and the C.G. all had ours comin' right then,
on'y we didn't know about it, not yet. We thought we was just
homeward bound, and we wanted a little fun with Maniller to make up
for the deeprivations of the Samar campaign. We got it all right.
"H'm," says the Captain, dealin' us the passes. "I'm sorry f'r
Maniller, but ye have earned a little reelaxation. Don't forget
you're f'r guard to-morrer, Casey," he says to me, an' we saluted an'
hit th' trail.
Terry and me clumb into a two-wheeled chicken-coop wagon outside the
Barracks, and th' horse not bein' only boy's size we lifted him by
th' slings, th' pair of us, and just naturally wandered on tiptoe
down to th' New Bridge. They give you th' biggest schooner of San
Magill f'r your _peseta_ there. New Bridge is th' name. Anybody can
tell you.
We had some beers, and then we went across to Mrs. Smith's, and got a
steak that never seen a tin can, and then we went back to the New
Bridge and met up with some more of th' Army. There was an
Engineer't could deal himself th' coldest hand of talk I ever bucked
up against, and two Coast Artillerys, and a Marine, an Irishman named
Schleimacher, that Clancy remembered helpin' to stuff a jade idol
into his blouse, up in Peking those happy days. Maybe there was
others. I don't remember.
I don't remember a whole lot of things about that day. Some way, the
beer was cold, and along in the middle of th' afternoon my thoughts
got to herdin' close, an' it was more'n I could do to cut some of
th'm out of th' bunch an' read th' brands on th'm. There must a been
strays around, too, for all of-a sudden I got to cryin' about me dear
ould mither an' th' little cabin--_Me_! I was born in Springfield,
Massachusetts, in a tenement, and I pulled my freight for Arizona as
soon as I could walk. But I sure was cryin' about that thought,
whoever it belonged to, and the Engineer ast me what th' trouble was,
and I told on myself.
"Gentlemen o' France," says he--I ain't quotin' him exact, f'r I'm no
college graduate--"Gentlemen o' France, and Ireland, what say you to
charterin' a couple of wagons, large, glad wagons with rubber tires,
and carryin' our brother out to refresh his homesick eyes on th'
emerald, sunburnt sod of th' Luneta, whilst Professor Lovering's
gu-gu band flirts with sweet music and we watches th' sunset glow on
Mariveles?"
Yes, sir, right off'n th' bat he showed down a hand of talk like
that, all aces an' better. It fazed us f'r a minute. He was a warm
boy, that Engineer. But old Terry was game.
"Son of th' pick-axe an' th' thebobolite," he says, startin' to play
up, "lead on," he says, "that is--if--if ye mean go to th' band
concert, we're with ye while th' money lasts," he finishes, winded.
So we gets a couple of victoriers, two horses apiece, footmen and
all, and strikes for th' Luneta, makin' full as much show as any
civilian clerk in th' Q.M.D. More, maybe, f'r that Irishman
Schleimacher wants to put his feet up on th' box. We tried to make
him ride decent, but th' Engineer butted in. "Let him be," he says.
"Otherwise what's th' use of th' footman, anyway?" So Sly kep' them
up there, and I reckon we attracted a lot of attention that didn't
cost us a cent.
By the time we got out there by the beach, th' air had cleared up my
head some, and I sat up and began to take notice. And about the
first thing I noticed hard was Terry. He'd quit talkin', an' there
was a hell uv a disdainful look on that two-foot face of his, and he
took off his hat to the flagpole when we went by it, second trip
round. I'd ought to have stopped th' game right then. There's two
kinds of Irish, if y' ever noticed,--common wild ones that generally
has the luck to meet Old Trouble when she comes marchin' down th'
street, comp'ny front; and th' fancy kind that could recruit a whole
bunch o' trouble right in th' middle of Paco bone-heap. Terry's that
last kind, and when he gets low-spirited and patriotic and full of
beer, it's time to hunt for the tall and uncut.
Well, the band kep' on a playin', an' th' sun kep' on a settin' and
we kep' on a drivin' round and round that mangy bunch o' grass, and
ev'ry trip Terry got glummer and glummer. After a while, he says to
me: "Look at th' pretty ladies, Casey, all th' pretty ladies in white
dresses an' talcum powder, if not worse. An' spot th' gay young
grafters in th' morgidged rigs. You and me can't speak to th' likes
of them, Casey. We're nothin' but soldiers. That's all. Just
soldiers, gettin' it in th' neck for fifteen-sixty per. Oh, hell!"
he says, and spits hard and straight at a swell native in white
clothes, that was waitin' for us to pass, "Look at him with shoes on,
like a white man! Ain't there a ripple o' patriotism in th' whole
damned outfit? There's th' old flag flyin' up above th'm, an' they
never think of it. Just ride around and flirt with each other, and
let natives walk around with shoes on, like white men. They make me
sick. I'm on'y a soldier, an' I suppose th' Army is th' on'y place
f'r lads like me and you--" he says.
He's ready to cry, an' th' Engineer butts in to change th' subjick.
"So say our long-suffering parents and sweethearts," he says.
"Pontoons," says Terry, talkin' fr'm about an inch below his
stummick, "you're a lively lad with y'r tongue, but ye lack dep'. I
ain't known ye long, an' I hope I ain't to know ye much longer, but I
can see ye lack more dep' 'n any man I ever met. There's moments in
th' life of a real man ye couldn't no more understand 'n a Chinese
storekeeper. An' this is one of th'm," he says, pullin' his hat down
over his eyes.
He didn't say no more, but when th' nigger band struck up th'
Umpty-dee-he-hee-_heee_ music, to show it was all over now, Terry got
up slow and stiff, and threw a chest and squeezed his hat to his left
breast and stood there in th' rig, lookin' considerable like some
gen'rals you and me've seen. He kep' on standin' there after th'
music had stopped, and after a while it got tiresome, and th'
Engineer told th' _cochero_ to _sigue_ ahead.
"_Hindi!_" says Terry. "Don't you believe it. You're like all th'
rest," he says to us, plumb disgusted. "You call yourselves
soldiers, and all you think about is just chow. Chow, at a moment
like this! There ain't a ripple of patriotism in the whole bunch of
ye big enough to grease a twenty-two cartridge." And he made us drive
up and down th' Malecon twice in th' moonlight before he'd go to
supper.
While we was chowin', he kep' gettin' grumper an' grumper, and after
supper, when th' Engineer wanted to be gettin' back to quarters--he
was livin' over'n old Santiaygo--Terry just busted loose.
"Pontoons," he says, "I t'ought you was a man. You're big enough f'r
one. Run away an' join th' Naytional Guard. Go an' be a
pinkety-pink Vol'nteer, an' tell th' nurs'ry-sergeant not to wake you
up without your p'rmission. Go an' dog-rob f'r a c'mission. Go an'
do this an' do that," he says, thinkin' up a whole lot of places f'r
th' Engineer to go, till fin'lly he got so ugly-ugly we took him into
th' New Bridge again, and bought him a drink to calm him down.
It didn't do no good. He kep' one eye on his glass an' th' other on
the Engineer, an' slung hot air till you wouldn't think a big guy
like that would stand f'r it. But th' Engineer just grins and drinks
his beer.
"Gentlemen," he says, "gentlemen and friend Clancy, there's a
hard-hearted son of Plymouth Rock commands th' comp'ny that'll be
roundin' up all th' poor little devils to check roll-call six times a
day before he's been dead a month. He'll mult me a month's pay f'r
missin' Retreat to-night--not that th' pleasure of enjoyin' you ain't
worth th' price," he says to Terry, "but I might just as well miss
Taps now, an' get a month in th' jug besides. What's th' use of
freedom without money? To-night we have both, and we'll pour them
out like blood, to soothe th' feelin's of a friend whose heart is sad
to think th' flag which decked his cradle now floats over th'
school-houses of th' brave but ex-tremely eelusive Fillypeeners."
Terry's mouth sort of hung open when th' Engineer struck his pace,
but he brightened up quick as he got on to the drift of it.
"Ye read my feelin's like a _padre_," he says to him, "an' I like
your build. If you was on'y in th' comp'ny, it's many a fight we'd
have together, an' we may have one even yet. Here's lookin' at ye!
You're a soldier, you are, and a gentleman. Here's how."
Of course we had a beer on the Engineer after that, and two on the
Coast Artillerys, who'd been sayin' little all day and drinkin'
hearty. Th' poor devils get that way, bein' stationed mostly near
big cities like Portland, Maine, an' Guam, where chanstes are few
since th' Christian Temp'rance persons got their strangle-holt. And
then our A.O.H. friend, Schleimacher, sets them up an' says:
"Fellers, a sailor like me--"
"Don't you miscall yourself; you're more of soldier than a heap of
th' muts I herd with," says Terry, takin' a sling at us, "but ye do
loot like a sailor," he says.
"I'm a soldier at sea, all right," says th' Marine. "I'm seasick as
an Army Transport ev'ry trip. I was talkin' when you butted in. A
sailor like me don't have many look-ins f'r what you might call
reefined amusements. Cavite's mostly give up to drill an'
cock-fights. I moves we all go to a nigger theayter to-night, where
there's sure to be plenty doin', such as it is."
We went, victoriers and all, and Old Trouble must a been howlin' f'r
joy to see us comin'. When we got there, there was a big crowd
outside, and we got wedged up against one of th' stands where th'
girls sell bananas and cigarettes an' such truck. One of th'm--a
pretty good-lookin' girl she was, too--smiles at Terry, and he opens
up a conversation, and fin'lly he says to me: "'Tis a long time since
I've et a hard-boiled egg. I'm goin' to have a couple if they're
fresh.
"_Frescoes?_" he asts, pointin' to the eggs. "_Wavoes frescoes?_"
_Fresco_ means cool in common bamboo Spanish, but he was usin' a
private Castilian brand of his own. "_Wavoes frescoes?_" he asts.
"Is the eggs cool?" Th' girl laughs.
"_Como helados, chiquito mio_," she says, laughin'. "Like ice, my
honey-bunch," she says.
"Give me two, then, an' keep th' change," says Terry. "_Dos_!
You're a neat little gu-gu," he says, holdin' up his two fingers.
He broke one of his eggs, and he dropped it quick.
"Ye little merrocker-leather daughter o' sin and shame," he says to
th' girl--I ain't quotin' _him_ exact neither--"ye little
two-f'r-a-cent bunch o' calicker," he says, mixin' in some other
words on the side, "bein' a lady, I can't say what I think of you,
but it ain't such a hell uv a much. Don't ye grin at _me_! I might
have _et_ that! If it had on'y knowed enough to _peep_," he says to
us, "it needn't never have got boiled alive. _Wavoes frescoes_!
Damn a country where a pretty girl will lie to you f'r half a cent.
I'll keep th' other one till I'm sure hungry," he says, an' slips his
other egg into his pocket.
He kep' on mutterin' to himself while he was squeezin' up to th'
little window, and a good tight squeeze we had. Y' see, old Ma
Trouble[1] had c'llected a special crowd f'r the occasion, but we
never noticed that. We just hiked ahead, and havin' plenty of
money--though little of it was left by that time--we bought a box,
and went in.
[1] It is interesting to note that Private Casey himself seems half
aware that some maliciously mirthful over-power is concerned in his
adventures. But why does he feminize it?
Maybe you've never been in a gu-gu theayter. Th' floor is th'
ground, an' that's the orchestray. Around that runs a row of boxes
without any fronts or backs or tops or sides. Behind them is th'
balcony. Well, we swell guys pikes up to our box and starts in to be
th' real thing. In one of them theayters you want to keep your hat
on till th' curtain rises, an' smoke cigarettes an' look round at th'
women. They expects it. That was easy f'r us, an' th' Engineer gets
up a two-handed game of eyes with a chocolate-colored dame that
begins to look entanglin'. But Terry broke it up.
"Turn round," he says. "Cut it out. She'll be settin' in your lap
in a minute, an' stealin' th' buttons off'n your blouse. Don't ye
trust any of th'm," he says. "_Wavoes frescoes!_"
And right there old Ma plays her joker. That drayma we'd come so far
to see was called "Kahapon--" but maybe you don't _sabe hablar_
Fillypeener. "Yesterday, To-day, and To-morrer," was th' name. Th'
first act was Yesterday. That was Spain. There was nothin' much
doin' f'r a while. Just talkin' slow an' keepin' your hand on your
knife, a good deal like that Greaser show that come to San Antone
once. But after a while, a priest showed up. He was one of th'
Friars, and they knocked him down first off, an' then they kicked him
all over th' stage, and sat on him and raised a rough-house with him
for fair. Them _Frailes_ must a been a long-sufferin' bunch,
Yesterday.
They'd just tossed him out of sight, when a lot of Spanish soldiers
come on and th' real shootin' begun. Well, sir, th' Fillypeeners
cleaned them Greasers out for keeps, an' th' little leadin' lady
grabs th' Spanish flag an' rips it up th' middle an' promenades on
th' pieces. Th' house went wild at that, and while they was clappin'
an' shoutin', the sun of Fillypeener liberty begun to rise at th'
back of the stage. It was a shaky old sun with three K's on its
face, like freckles. I see Terry fumblin' in his pocket for
somethin', and then, just as th' sun is gettin' fairly up, somethin'
puts th' poor thing's eye out, and th' curtain falls quick.
"_Wavoes frescoes!_" Terry sings out.
Well, sir, things livened up somethin' wonderful just about then.
All th' natives in th' place, about a thousand of th'm, begun to yowl
like cats and crowd toward our box, and half a dozen Spaniards, or
half-Spaniards, was yellin' "_Brayvo el Americano!_" and some
Americans that was scattered round th' audience was movin' up at th'
double without sayin' anythin'.
"Nothin' doin', boys," Terry yells to them, standin' up, and a big
man he looked. "Scat!" he says to th' natives. "_Sigue Dagupan_,
you _Kittycattypunanos_, before I chew you up," he says, and makes
like he was goin' to jump down among th'm.
They scatted all right, and we pulled Terry down, quiet enough, on'y
his shoulders was twitchin' under his blouse. "Casey," he says to
me, "I always took the Fillypeeners f'r Catholics till I seen th'm
maul that _padre_, an' I've been gentle with th'm on that account.
God help th' next one I lay foot to."
"I mistrust this is one of th' seditious plays we read about," th'
Engineer whispers to me, "and I reckon To-day will be worse than
Yesterday, f'r the big man. Hadn't we better get him out of here?"
"His patriotism is sure ripplin' lively," I says.
"An' did ye never read th' po'm," says th' lad, "about th' pebble
dropped in th' middle of th' ocean, an' th' ripples it kicked up?"
"I never read no po'try," I says, "if I see it first, but
something'll be kicked up f'r keeps, if Terry ever drops down in that
crowd." And then th' house quieted down, an' th' curtain went up f'r
th' next act.
To-day was us, th' Americans. A little gen'ral with pompydoor
hair--that looked natchral--walked round f'r a while, hablaring to
his crowd, and then six men in khaki came in, carryin' th' flag, and
th' other gang began to shoot them up. It warn't pretty to watch,
on'y we didn't have time to watch it much. Th' Engineer an' me had
one of Terry's arms, and Schleimacher was tryin' to keep a hand over
his mouth and not get bit. Th' talk he was tryin' to make was
shockin'. But we held him all right till th' Americans was lyin'
round th' stage picturesque and dead as hell. An' then th' little
girl grabs th' flag, and you could hear the audience draw a long
breath.
I didn't think she'd dare to do it, but I suppose it was on th'
programme and they didn't want to give no money back. Sure enough
she spits on it an' tosses it on th' floor, and then--well, Terry
brushes the Engineer and me out of his way, and steps up on the edge
of the box and makes his little speech. "Boys!" he yells, "remember
Balangiga an' th' rest of th' tricks they've played us. That's th'
flag," and he hops down to the floor.
"Come on," I yells to the Engineer. "If he gets on that stage alone,
it'll be murder," and down we jumps.
It was like slippin' off a ford into quick water. The women was
screechin' and the men howlin' and the boys behind us was laughin'
and shoutin' and bangin' every head that came their way, and some
fool begun to let off a gun into the roof. But th' Engineer and me
just kep' on down that aisle after Terry. Just when he reached th'
musicians, the curtain came down, but he picks a fiddler, fiddle and
all, and tosses him into th' rotten old cloth like a sack of beans,
and goes through th' hole after him.
But it stopped him up enough so't the Engineer and me clumb through
onto the stage right behind him. We piled onto him just as he was
makin' a rush f'r a bunch of actors, and there was a good lively
mix-up f'r a few seconds. Men began to come through the curtain in a
dozen places, and th' racket in the house doubled up. I don't know
just everythin' that happened, f'r th' minute Terry gave in a bit, we
drug him out th' back way and cut up an alley, never stoppin' to find
out where Schleimacher and the Artillerys was. And I s'pose them
victoriers is out front there yet, waitin' for their money. And I'll
bet there never was no To-morrer in that drayma, not that night.
We got out onto the corner where there's a saloon, and then we
stopped to listen. Same as always, the minute Terry couldn't do no
more harm, he was gentle as a child. "There's patriotism around all
right," he says, cockin' his head toward the racket back at the
theayter. "It on'y needs somebody to stir it up. I'll bet anybody
five to one in beers that somebody gets hurt out of this before it's
over," he says, as a extry loud howl and a ripple of shots busts
loose fr'm the theayter, and a patrol-wagon comes ting-tingin' it
down the street. "I make it beer," says Terry, "because I'm thirsty."
"Take you and lose," says th' Engineer. "Step in here and we'll pay
up one of th'm now."
So we stepped in there, and we stepped in sev'ral other places, till
we sort of got th' habit. I reckon we traveled all over Maniller
after that, and had beers with about half th' Army. Th' last thing I
remember, Terry had got patriotic again, an' was sayin' a po'm about
th' flag. Then my thoughts got to advancin' in regimental formation,
and I sort of went to sleep.
Th' dinky little guard-mount march was goin' next mornin'--I reckon
it was next mornin'--when I woke up, so I knew somethin' was wrong.
I reached f'r my rifle, me bein' warned for guard that day, and I
found I was in th' guard-house a'ready, and Terry was poundin' his
ear on a bunk beside me. My head felt like a caraboo had walked on
it, an' I yelled to the sentry for water.
"The ice-water's over'n th' corner, same as always," he says, peekin'
in through th' bars. "You sure ain't forgotten this quick?"
"What did we do?" I asts him, sizzlin' down about a quart in one gulp.
"What didn't ye do? Pers'nally ye did up three of us while we was
puttin' you in th' cooler here. Ye came home singin' in a
carrermatter 'bout 3 A.M., an' Terry wanted to bring th' _cochero_ in
an' kneel him in front of th' flagpole an' cut his head off. You was
tryin' to borry a bay'net f'r th' ceremony. But I guess you'll get
to rememberin' most all you did, and some more, before th' Old Man
gets through with you. He's had a squad of cops _and_ an orderly
fr'm headquarters to call on him a'ready this mornin'. Fr'm what
they said, I should judge you tried to bust up the little old Civil
Gov'ment and clean up the L.B.B. Don't be bashful about th' water,"
he says. "It's all f'r you."
While I was sloshin' ice-water over my head, Terry woke up. We sat
on the edges of our bunks and talked it all over. We didn't feel
real affectionate. We was still talkin', sort of aimless but
effective, when the guard came an' took us out to the orderly-room
and lined us up in front of th' Old Man.
"H'm," he says, swingin' back in his chair. "Do ye desire to call
any witnesses to prove ye didn't do it?"
"No, sir," we both says quick. We'd known him f'r some time.
"H'm. That's lucky f'r you," he says. "I don't mind havin' men try
to run my guard at three in th' mornin'," he says, talkin' to the
ceilin' like an old friend, "nor tryin' to murder a coachman on my
p'rade-ground, nor blackin' th' eye of th' sergeant of th' guard.
H'm. Ye've got to ex-pect them little things fr'm real soldiers, of
course," he says. "H'm. But when I have to drive away six policemen
before breakfast who've came to arrest two of my men f'r assaultin'
several hundred natives all to onct, I've got to draw th' line.
There's eddy-toryals about them men in all th' native papers this
mornin', or so I am informed accordin' to th' best of my ability, and
in th' _Cable-News_. A brutal attack on peaceable, well-disposed
Fillypeeners, and on hundreds of th'm at that, is an assault to the
foundations of government which I can't overlook. H'm."
"She spit on th' flag, sir," says Terry.
"Th' Colonel wanted them men for a G.C.M. this mornin'," says the Old
Man, "to say nothin' of what th' civil authorities want th'm for, and
that's a whole lot. But there ain't been a gen'ral pris'ner out of
this comp'ny for five year now, and I persuaded the Commandin'
Officer that I could attend to th' case. H'm. What do you think
about that, Casey?"
"Yessir," I says.
"H'm. And Clancy?"
"Yessir," Terry says.
"H'm," says he, "y'r confidence in me is flatterin'. I'll try not to
disappoint ye," he says, and gets up an' goes limpin' round th' room
on his Tientsin leg. He walks around there f'r five minutes, anyway,
before he says a word. Fin'lly he stops and looks out of the window.
"A very pretty p'rade-ground we have here, Mr. Boyd," he says to the
Lieutenant.
"Very pretty, sir," says the Lieutenant, puzzled to know what the Old
Man would be carin' about parade-grounds just then.
He hadn't served with him as long as me and Clancy had. You remember
how the old barracks is built, in a hollow square round a p'rade big
enough f'r a regimental corral, with th' post flagstaff stickin' up
in th' middle, and lookin' about three hundred foot high?
"H'm," says th' Captain, gazin' out of his window. "Very pretty,
indeed. But do you notice how the grass is growin' up between th'
flagstones in the paths? That's not neat, Mr. Boyd. That's not
fittin' in a place where the shadder of th' Flag must fall," he says,
glancin' at us. "H'm. They tell me you're becomin' somethin' of a
patriot, Clancy?"
"Yessir," says Terry.
"H'm. And Casey?"
"Yessir," I says.
"That's fine," says th' Old Man. "That's a pleasant surprise. H'm.
But I hear ye have been wastin' y'r patriotism in wild firin'," he
says. "It's too vallyouble to waste, 'specially in Maniller. I must
try to help you make it flow in a gentle, steady stream. H'm. If
you let it fly in chunks, it closely resimbles annichy," he says,
"'specially in Maniller. H'm. Sentry, march these men to the p'rade
and see that they pluck the grass, all the grass, between the stones,
tie it in bundles of fifty stalks, neat bundles, and place the
bundles at the foot of the post flagstaff. H'm. And, Sentry, see
that after depositin' each bundle, they retire twelve paces and
salute their flag before resumin' work. After you have cleaned th'
p'rade," he says to us, "I trust I shall be able to find some other
work for you. If ye either of you feel y'r patriotism flaggin' under
th' strain, just tell th' sentry and he will bring you in to me and I
will try to revive it. H'm. You understand, Sentry?"
"Yessir," says th' sentry. His mouth was twistin' up on him, an' th'
Lieutenant's, an' everybody's, but just us and the Old Man's. He
looks sort of surprised.
"Is they any jokes around here I ain't noticed?" he says. "I do love
a joke. H'm. You seen any, Clancy?"
"Nossir," says Terry, pretty sick.
The sentry grinned all th' time he was marchin' us out, an' the news
spread quick, and they was grins to meet us all the way. An' then
th' sentry begins to guy us.
"You've skipped a stalk on y'r left flank, Clancy," he says. "I
shall have to report it. And tie th'm in neat bundles of twelve
stalks, is the orders, retire fifty paces, and salute th' flag."
"Cut it out, Skinny," says Terry. "He said bundles of fifty. I
heard him m'self."
"Bundles o' hell an' fifty paces," says Skinny. "You can go an' ast
_him_ if ye won't believe _me_. Wouldn't ye like, perhaps, to go an'
ast him? I'll march ye in with pleasure."
"Have y'r laugh while ye've got a place f'r it," says Terry. "I'll
make y'r face over for ye, ye hyeener, when I get a chanst."
"Intimidatin' a sentry," says Skinny, but he shut up, far as talk
went. On'y he made a bugle of his nose, an' begun to hum little
tunes through it, and then th' crowd begun driftin' out on th'
verandahs and caught on, and all you could hear was that whole damn
parrot-faced battalion blowin' through their noses,
Umpty-dee-he-hee-_heee_-he-he-_hee_-hum-hum-_hum_!
Terry and me said nothin' and picked busy f'r a while, but about th'
hundre'th bundle th' hot stones and th' sun an' yesterday's beer an'
th' crowd loafin' in th' cool verandahs an' ev'rything else all took
holt of me to onct.
"You're an ornament to th' Service," I says, tryin' to crawl into th'
shadder of the pole. 'Twas about a mile long and an inch wide.
"Stow y'r face," says Terry, tyin' a bundle with a thumb big as three
of it.
"I'd enjoy tellin' you what I think of you," I says, "on'y I can't
think of it all to onct. How's y'r patriotism ripplin' now?" I says.
"Looka th' Flag, th' dear old Flag, floatin' up above y'r crazy head."
Terry swallers hard. "Casey," he says, "I may uv let ye in f'r this,
but--" He picks up his little bundle and carries it over to th' foot
of th' pole. Then he falls back and salutes. Then he comes over to
me, an' his face was blossomin' into a grin! Yessir, there was a
hole in them rugged features of his you could've shoved a
blanket-roll into. "Oh, Casey," he says, "Casey, man, if th' Old Boy
soaks it to us this way f'r what we done, wouldn't ye, oh, wouldn't
ye just like to see what he'd a done to that theayter, if he was
runnin' this little old town?"
An' thinkin' of that, I grinned too.