"About Bible words? Oh, yes they do!" said Mrs. Gresham, with her gentle smile. "You do not know many people here yet, Mr. Kindred." "And I am not likely to, very soon," said Magnus. "But I spoke too quick. Yes, I know there are some right here in the Corps who care. There's Mr. Upright of the first class. I do not believe he ever misses a chance of doing the out-and-out thing for a Christian to do. And Mr. True of the third, he's another. Oh, there are a lot among us that know enough--if we only hold out," he added soberly. Mrs. Gresham had listened for her son's name, but it did not come. He, too, "knew enough," but alas! only that very morning when he came in from drill, Magnus had heard him curse his horse, and the instructor, and the whole concern, in terms that would have wrung the gentle mother's heart. The girls did not know, as they hung upon his arm; the officers did not guess, seeing only the straight military figure and good face: only God knew, and the fellow-students to whom Gresham was setting his example. The mother felt the omission, sighed, waited, and sighed again; then silently locked up her fears and her disappointment. "But you _must_ hold out, Mr. Kindred," she said. "If you are a professing Christian, you have sworn it." "Yes, ma'am," Magnus answered soberly, "and I mean it, too. But there are harder times here than you can guess." "It is the pinch that shows what a man is," said Mrs. Gresham. "If you must run, run before the firing begins." Magnus laughed. "I'll remember," he said. "But remember, too," said Mrs. Gresham, "that here as everywhere else: on the Hill Difficulty of West Point, no less than among the Delectable Mountains at home, you are to be a witness for Christ." "Yes, ma'am--you would think so," said Magnus excitedly, "and so mother thinks. But how are you going to do anything _here_? Religion don't count, in this old camp." "Religion may come in and stay, even where she is not fêted and caressed," said Mrs. Gresham. "That is true enough," said the boy, colouring. "All the same, you can't guess, as I said, what a hard time she has. And now guard duty begins; and it'll be drill and walk post, walk post and drill, night and day. Your shoulders poked in, and your feet kicked out. Skinned if you don't skin somebody else, and nearly skinned actually if you do. Told forty things a day that you don't understand, and then given extra tours _because_ you don't. That's what they say. Why, there are six hundred and sixty-eight separate regulations that we are supposed to keep!" "Six hundred and sixty-eight!" said Mrs. Gresham. "Well, it must take a very lively imagination to 'suppose' that three hundred boys will keep six hundred and sixty-eight regulations." "They know we can't do it," said Magnus hotly. "But we're bid to, all the same. And they punish us if we don't."