"Mine?" replied the boy. "I can spy a young sparrow a mile away."

"Are you good for a climb to the top of this tree?"

"To the top of this tree? I? I'll be up there in half a minute."

"And will you be able to tell me what you see up there--if there are
Austrian soldiers in that direction, clouds of dust, gleaming guns,
horses?"

"Certainly I shall."

"What do you demand for this service?"

"What do I demand?" said the lad, smiling. "Nothing. A fine thing,
indeed! And then--if it were for the _Germans_, I wouldn't do it on any
terms; but for our men! I am a Lombard!"

"Good! Then up with you."

"Wait a moment, until I take off my shoes."

He pulled off his shoes, tightened the girth of his trousers, flung his
cap on the grass, and clasped the trunk of the ash.

"Take care, now!" exclaimed the officer, making a movement to hold him
back, as though seized with a sudden terror.

The boy turned to look at him, with his handsome blue eyes, as though
interrogating him.

"No matter," said the officer; "up with you."

Up went the lad like a cat.

"Keep watch ahead!" shouted the officer to the soldiers.

In a few moments the boy was at the top of the tree, twined around the
trunk, with his legs among the leaves, but his body displayed to view,
and the sun beating down on his blond head, which seemed to be of gold.
The officer could hardly see him, so small did he seem up there.

"Look straight ahead and far away!" shouted the officer.

The lad, in order to see better, removed his right hand from the tree,
and shaded his eyes with it.

"What do you see?" asked the officer.

The boy inclined his head towards him, and making a speaking-trumpet of
his hand, replied, "Two men on horseback, on the white road."

"At what distance from here?"

"Half a mile."

"Are they moving?"

"They are standing still."

"What else do you see?" asked the officer, after a momentary silence.
"Look to the right." The boy looked to the right.

Then he said: "Near the cemetery, among the trees, there is something
glittering. It seems to be bayonets."

"Do you see men?"

"No. They must be concealed in the grain."

At that moment a sharp whiz of a bullet passed high up in the air, and
died away in the distance, behind the house.

"Come down, my lad!" shouted the officer. "They have seen you. I don't
want anything more. Come down."

"I'm not afraid," replied the boy.

"Come down!" repeated the officer. "What else do