Teddy's Button Part 7

Nancy gazed at the young orator with a little awe.

'No,' she said; 'what?'

'I would drop down and die, my heart would burst and break, and if I couldn't die very quick, I wouldn't eat or drink nothing, but I'd go sadly to my grave and lay my head down, and the next morning you would find me stiff and cold with my gla.s.sy eyes staring up at the sky, like an old dog I read about.'

Teddy's tone was so intensely tragic that Nancy was silent. At last she said, 'I'll never love you proper till you give it to me.'

'Will you like me a little instead?'

'I might do that,' she replied reluctantly.

'And you won't never say you don't believe father's story?'

'I aren't going to promise.'

Then, as the very last bite was taken of the apple, she added, 'I'll hear some more of your stories first. I want to hear one now. Sally White told me at school you know all about fairies.'

Teddy nodded impressively, then said slowly, 'I make believe I do, but I don't make believe father's story.'

'Tell me a story now.'

Teddy clasped his hands round a bough, and with knitted brows considered.

Then he looked up, and the light sparkled in his eyes.

'Shall I tell you about when I went into an oak-tree, and found a little door leading down some steps that took me to the goblin's cave?'

This sounded enchanting, and Nancy eagerly prepared herself to listen.

Such a story was then poured out that it held her spell-bound. Goblins, elves, and fairies, underground glories, thrilling adventures and escapes. Was it any wonder that with such a gift for story-telling Teddy was the king of the village? It came to an end at last, and Nancy drew a long breath of relief and content when she heard the concluding sentence, 'And I quickly opened the little door, and there I was outside the oak, and safe in the wood again.'

'b.u.t.ton-boy, I do like you,' she a.s.serted, with a quick little nod of her head. 'Will you tell me another story soon?'

'P'raps I will,' said Teddy, feeling a little elated that he was gaining supremacy over her, 'but I'm going home now. I only came out to have a think, and to make friends with you.'

'What made you come and make it up?' the little maiden asked, as after a scramble down, they stood at the foot of the tree. 'You said something about your Captain; who is He?'

'Jesus Christ,' Teddy replied reverently, 'and His banner is love, so I have to love everybody, whether I like them or not.'

'Why?'

'Because He wants me to, and I'm one of His soldiers now.'

'Has Jesus any sailors?'

The question was put suddenly, and the answer was given with a slight air of superiority, 'No only soldiers He has.'

'Then I don't want to belong to Him. I believe He has sailors just as well as soldiers, only you're not telling true.'

Her tone was getting wrathful, but Teddy shook his head solemnly. 'I'm sure there's nothing about Jesus' sailors in the Bible; but I'll ask mother, and then I'll tell you. I must go home now. Good-bye. We're going to be friends?'

'Yes, we're going to be friends,' she repeated; and then away they scampered in different directions, Nancy calling out, like a true little woman, 'But I shan't really love you till you give me your b.u.t.ton.'

CHAPTER V

First Victories

'Please, sir, may I speak to you?'

Mr. Upton was coming out of church after a choir practice, when Teddy accosted him.

He smiled when he saw the boy. 'You may walk home with me and speak to me as much as you like.'

And so they sauntered up the shady lane, the old rector with his head bent and his hands crossed behind him, and the boy all eager excitement and motion, with suppressed importance in his tone.

'I want you to give me a name for my enemy, please, sir.'

Mr. Upton looked amused. 'Have you had any battles with him yet?'

'I think I had one yesterday. May I tell you? Granny was very angry with me because I had made Uncle Jake's best handkerchief into a banner of love. I didn't really think it was naughty. I wrote "Love" in ink right across it; and I took such pains, for I wanted to show it to Nancy. And when I got home granny was so angry that she took me by the collar and she locked me into the back kitchen; and mother was out, and I cried, I was so miserable. Granny said I would come to the workhouse; she called me the wickedest, mischievousest boy she'd ever seen, and said she would like to give me a good whipping. And at last I got tired of being miserable, and I looked about, and I saw the window was partly open, so I climbed up, and then I thought I would jump out and run away across the fields till mother came home. And I was very happy then, and I jumped right out, and then I remembered, but I didn't want to go back again.'

'And then the fight began?' suggested the rector, as the boy paused.

Teddy nodded. 'I asked G.o.d to drive my enemy away, but I was an awful long time thinking it out. Is thinking fighting?'

'Very often it is.'

'I did fight hard, then; and I climbed in again. Was that being a soldier?'

'Yes, my boy.'

'And granny let me out soon after; and I kissed her and said I was sorry, but I told her how nearly I had run away, and asked her to see that the window was locked next time, so that I shouldn't have to fight so hard.'

'You will have plenty of fighting. Don't s.h.i.+rk the hottest part of the field; that isn't being brave.'

'Will you give me a horrid, ugly name, please, sir?'

'I thought your enemy's name was Teddy.'

'No, that's mine; I must have a name for him--a different one, you know.'

'How do you like Ego or Ipse?'

'What funny names! I think I like Ipse best I'll call him Ipse, shall I?'

But Mr. Upton's thoughts were far away by this time, and presently he said, as if to himself, '"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." It is a fight with certain victory ahead; then why do we fail?'