Eight Cousins; Or, The Aunt-HillAlcott, Louisa May
General
Eight Cousins; Or, The Aunt-Hill
Alcott, Louisa May
Cousins -- Juvenile fiction; Family life -- Juvenile fiction; Orphans -- Juvenile fiction
Jamie and Pokey were at once enrolled in the Cosey Corner Light
Infantry,--a truly superb company, composed entirely of officers, all
wearing cocked hats, carrying flags, waving swords, or beating drums. It
was a spectacle to stir the dullest soul when this gallant band marched
out of the yard in full regimentals, with Captain Dove--a solemn,
big-headed boy of eleven--issuing his orders with the gravity of a
general, and his Falstaffian regiment obeying them with more docility
than skill. The little Snow children did very well, and Lieutenant Jack
Dove was fine to see; so was Drummer Frank, the errand-boy of the house,
as he rub-a-dub-dubbed with all his heart and drumsticks. Jamie had
"trained" before, and was made a colonel at once; but Pokey was the best
of all, and called forth a spontaneous burst of applause from the
spectators as she brought up the rear, her cocked hat all over one eye,
her flag trailing over her shoulder, and her wooden sword straight up in
the air; her face beaming and every curl bobbing with delight as her fat
legs tottered in the vain attempt to keep step manfully.
Mac and Rose were picking blackberries in the bushes beside the road
when the soldiers passed without seeing them, and they witnessed a sight
that was both pretty and comical. A little farther on was one of the
family burial spots so common in those parts, and just this side of it
Captain Fred Dove ordered his company to halt, explaining his reason for
so doing in the following words:--
"That's a graveyard, and it's proper to muffle the drums and lower the
flags as we go by, and we'd better take off our hats, too; it's more
respectable, I think."
"Isn't that cunning of the dears?" whispered Rose, as the little troop
marched slowly by to the muffled roll of the drums, every flag and sword
held low, all the little heads uncovered, and the childish faces very
sober as the leafy shadows flickered over them.
"Let's follow and see what they are after," proposed Mac, who found
sitting on a wall and being fed with blackberries luxurious but
tiresome.
So they followed and heard the music grow lively, saw the banners wave
in the breeze again when the graveyard was passed, and watched the
company file into the dilapidated old church that stood at the corner of
three woodland roads. Presently the sound of singing made the outsiders
quicken their steps, and, stealing up, they peeped in at one of the
broken windows.
Captain Dove was up in the old wooden pulpit, gazing solemnly down upon
his company, who, having stacked their arms in the porch, now sat in the
bare pews singing a Sunday-school hymn with great vigor and relish.
"Let us pray," said Captain Dove, with as much reverence as an army
chaplain; and, folding his hands, he repeated a prayer which he thought
all would know,--an excellent little prayer, but not exactly appropriate
to the morning, for it was,--
"Now I lay me down to sleep."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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