, and I get the button, I shall wear it as a brooch!'

'Mother,' said Teddy, a few days after this, as she was paying him her
usual 'good-night' visit, 'it's a very funny thing; but do you know, I
used to wish for an enemy so much, to fight and carry on with, and now
I've got one, and have Ipse to fight with, I'm getting rather tired of
him. Is that wicked? I asked Mr. Upton to-day if I couldn't ever get rid
of Ipse--I mean when I am grown up, but he said I never should
altogether, but that I could keep him well under, so that he wouldn't
trouble me so. He does trouble me a lot now'

'Soldiers must never get tired of fighting, sonny, and you have your
Captain to help you.'

'Yes; and I suppose when I get bigger and stronger it will be much
easier, won't it? Mother, do you have any fighting? Have you got an
enemy like me?'

'Yes, indeed I have, my boy.'

'But you're never beaten, are you? You never do anything wrong!'

'I don't get into mischief, and disobey orders, perhaps,' Mrs. John
said, smiling; 'but I have lots of difficulties and temptations that
you know little about, sonny, and I am afraid I very often get beaten
by the enemy.'

Teddy pondered over this. 'When I get to heaven I shan't have to fight
with Ipse, shall I?'

'No, darling; there will be no fighting with sin there.'

Teddy smiled. 'Perhaps my Captain will think I've been nearly as brave as
father if I fight Ipse hard till I die.'

'There is a verse in the Bible that says, "He that ruleth his spirit is
better than he that taketh a city." Mother would rather have her little
son fight God's battles than be the bravest soldier in the Queen's army.'

'But,' said Teddy, 'I mean to do both; and now, mother, just before I go
to sleep, give me father's button to kiss!'

FINIS.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Teddy's Button, by Amy Le Feuvre

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