Page:Little Daffydowndilly-1887.djvu/22

18 bright muskets on their shoulders. In front marched two drummers and two fifers, beating on their drums and playing on their fifes with might and main, and making such lively music that little Daffydowndilly would gladly have followed them to the end of the world. And if he was only a soldier, then, he said to himself, old Mr. Toil would never venture to look him in the face.

&ldquo;Quick step! Forward march !&rdquo; shouted a gruff voice.

Little Daffydowndilly started, in great dismay; for this voice which had spoken to the soldiers sounded precisely the same as that which he had heard every day in Mr. Toil&rsquo;s school-room, out of Mr, Toil&rsquo;s own mouth. And, turning his eyes to the captain of the company, what should he see but the very image of old Mr. Toil himself, with a smart cap and feather on his head, a pair of gold epaulets on his shoulders, a laced coat on his back, a purple sash round his waist, and a long sword, instead of a birch rod, in his hand. And though he held his head so high, and strutted like a turkey-cock, still he looked quite as ugly and disagreeable as when he was hearing lessons in the school-room.

&ldquo;This is certainly old Mr. Toil&rdquo; said Daffydowndilly, in a trembling voice. &ldquo;Let us run away, for fear he should make us enlist in his company!&rdquo;

&ldquo;You are mistaken again, my little friend,&rdquo; replied the stranger, very composedly. &ldquo;This is not Mr Toil, the schoolmaster, but a brother of his, who has served in the army all his life. People say he &rsquo;s a terribly severe fellow; but you and I need not be afraid of him.&rdquo;

&ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; said little Daffydowndilly. &ldquo;but, if