the boy who had worked the lasso on Uncle Ike, "the
way these Mexicans handled the lariat struck me the hardest, only they
look so darned lazy. They just wait for a horse to get in the right
place, and then pull up. I would like to see them chase something, and
catch it by the leg, that was trying to get away. But the Cossacks! O,
my! couldn't they ride, standing up, or dragging on the ground with one
foot in the stirrup. Gosh! if Russia turned about a million of those
Cossacks loose on China, they wouldn't do a thing to John Chinaman."

"The Indians got me," said another boy, as he took off a moccasin and
hung it up in the sun to dry, after his fight to the death with Uncle
Ike's waterworks. "I would like to be an Indian, or a squaw, and never
have anything to do but travel with a show, and yell. They just have a
soft snap, dressing up in feathers, and paint, and buckskin, and living
on the fat of the land, and yelling ki-yi! in a falsetto voice."

"Oh, I don't know," said the red-headed boy, "what struck me as the most
exciting was the battle of San Juan hill. Say, did you see our boys just
walk right up to the Spaniards, in the face of a perfect hailstorm of
blank cartridges, with a gatling gun stuttering smokeless powder, and
the boys in blue firing volleys, and the rough riders walking on foot,
and the Spaniards just falling back, and pretty soon we went right over
them, and down came the Spanish flag, and then the Stars and Stripes
went up, and there was where I yelled so the roof ripped. But what made
me cry was to see Old Glory and the British flag get together, every
little while, and float side by side, and seem to be grown together as
one flag, and everybody seemed glad. What you think about things, Uncle
Ike? Don't sit there and smoke up, all the time, but tell us what you
think about the American and British flags waving together so much
lately. Are you in favor of an alliance? Do you want to be an assistant
Englishman, Uncle Ike?"

"Well, I don't want to be quoted much on this business," said Uncle Ike,
as he looked around at the boys, who were listening intently. "I have
watched the course of England and all the countries, for over, fifty
years, in their relations with this country, and the only friendship
England ever showed to us was in the last war. They did us good, no
doubt, and I trust I am grateful, as becomes a good citizen. It was like
a big boy and little boy fighting. The big boy can whip if h