am. I don't know. But it wouldn't prove that I wasn't if I fought you
any more than if I fought the strangers on the other side of the
frontier."

"Well, if you don't want to fight, what are you in the army for? That's
a fair question, isn't it?" growled Pilzer, in an appeal to public
opinion.

"Yes, you can carry a joke too far," said the army officer's son. "Yes,
why?"

The others nodded. An atmosphere of hostility was gathering around Hugo.
In face of it a smile began playing about the corners of his lips. The
smile spread. For the first time he was laughing, while all the others
were serious. Suddenly he threw his arms around the necks of the men
next to him.

"Why, to be with all you good fellows, of course!" he said, "and to
complete my education. If I hadn't taken my period in the army, you
might have shaved me, Eduardo; you might have fixed a horseshoe for me,
Henry; you might have sold me turnips, Eugene, but I shouldn't have
known you. Now we all know one another by eating the same food, wearing
the same clothes, marching side by side, and submitting to another kind
of discipline than that of our officers--the discipline of close
association in a community of service. There's hope for humanity in
that--for humanity trying to free itself of its fetters. We have mixed
with the people of the capital. They have found us and we have found
them to be of the same human family."

"That's so! This business of moving regiments about from one garrison to