dust. It was little Arisuga who raised it--to such a shout as
cost the Chinese the hundred or so men they could spare at that time.
And he stayed out there, with the flag, where the Chinese were, when the
rest retired, and taunted the enemy with polite epithets, kept his
pistol going, and finally came through without a scratch!

Thus, the smallest member of the Guards had demonstrated to the
greatest, the thing which helped to win their other victories: that
though their enemy was not lacking in courage, as they had thought, yet
he could neither manoeuvre nor shoot.

Afterward, there was a contest for the picturesque office of
color-bearer. Some of them wanted Okuma. And Arisuga was willing, of
course. He knew how impossible it was to him at his size. But Colonel
Zanzi said the colors belonged to Arisuga.

"Men get what they win in the army--nothing more, and not less. Here, no
honor goes by favor! A man passes for a man until he is proven
otherwise, no matter who or what he is, or whether he be five feet or
six. In the army there are neither eta nor samurai, only sons of the
emperor."

After the peace of Shimenoseki there was dull barrack life for little
Arisuga, far from Yone, until he led the allies in their assault upon
the gate of the Hidden City. You will remember that the Japanese were
conceded the advance. After the first repulse they disentangled Arisuga
from a heap of Chinese with the colors still upright in his hands. The
wound was in his forehead. The great death had been near.

Now it happened that the next day a man with a Japanese name was brought
before Colonel Zanzi and desired to know why it was that wounded
Japanese soldiers were taken to the houses of the Chinese when there
were Japanese houses near where they would be not only welcome
but--Well, he had a pretty daughter, and the Chinese annoyed her by
their attentions. A Japanese soldier in the house, a flag in the yard,
and a pink ticket at the door would be not only glory but protection.

"I see," laughed the colonel. "Will a wounded one do?"

The visitor thought he would--if he were the young man who had been
carried to the house of Han-Hai next door to him, the day before.

"Very good," smiled the colonel. "I observe that we are not only
glorifying the emperor, but assisting a countryman to humble his Chinese
neighbor. Very good!"

"It is not that," said the Japanese in China. "My daughter has seen
him."

"Oh-h! Oh-h! He will have go