The thing was agreed upon, and the General and I drove down to Magnolia Cottage next day. The General had gone out in the morning on a mysterious business, and several brown-paper parcels of odd shapes had been left afterwards by quickly-arriving errand-boys. I didn't ask what the things were, but I guessed pretty accurately without the assistance of Miss MacNeill's indiscretion. She had accompanied us to the hall-door, and noticed the General, with a pretence of there being no secrecy about the matter, carrying his parcels to the hansom. "Now whatever have you got there?" she blurted. "Not a toy drum, surely. You're not going back to your second childhood, Hugh?" "Madam," said the General in his angriest voice, "folly and meddlesomeness are not confined to any age, as you've the best right in all the world to know." And he stalked away from the gibe I saw trembling on Miss Lucy's lips. When we were seated and packed round about with very angular parcels, he explained to me apologetically that he had taken the liberty of bringing some toys for the little soldier. "Your sister won't mind, my dear," he said. "She will forgive an old man who once had a little soldier of his own." "She will think it very kind," I assured him, and indeed those toys were a passport for the General to the hearts of the two women who loved Jacky more than all the world. Mrs. Vincent proved to be the widow of the General's old friend, and as they seemed to have a thousand things to talk of, Freda and I left them together while we made Jacky's toilet. It had been made earlier in the day, but he had undone it all by falling into the bath while giving his puppy, Captain, a bath in honour of the brave soldier man they were both going to be introduced to. Jacky certainly looked very smart when we had got him into a fresh white sailor suit, and with his hair more curly than ever after his cold-water dip, presented him to the General. Jacky immediately stood "at attention", with his finger to his curls as a military salute. "Why, come here, my brave lad, and see whether the young soldier can learn anything from the old soldier!" cried the General, beaming; and a few seconds later Jacky was perched on his knee, showing him his good-conduct stripes, and explaining that at the end of the year, if his conduct was all that could be desired, he was to receive a medal. "Where are your medals, old soldier?" Jacky cried. "And why don't you wear them on your tunic as I shall?" The general explained to him that custom required the grown-up soldier to dress like an ordinary citizen at times, and then he described, with the utmost painstaking, so that a little child might understand, the various medals he had, and the battles for which they were given.