ral 'Yes, yes,' showed that he had spoken entirely in accord with
the mind of the others. They stepped up to Big L and stretched out their
hands to him, but then, as at a word of command, they threw themselves
upon Little L. There formed a regular knot about the lad, first one
and then another wished to grasp him by the hand and shake it. Those
standing at the back stretched out their hands 'way across those in
front, some even climbed on to the table to get at him; they stroked
his head, patted him on the shoulder, and with it all was a general
whispering: 'Little L, you glorious rascal, you superb Little L.'"

The old colonel lifted his glass to his mouth--it was as if he were
forcing something down behind it. When he set it down again, he drew a
deep sigh from the bottom of his heart.

"Boys like that," said he, "they have instinct--instinct and sentiment.

"The lights were turned out, all stole hushed through the corridor back
to their rooms. Five minutes later every boy was lying in his bed, and
the affair was ended.

"The captain and the other officers had heard not a sound of the whole
matter.

"The affair was ended"--the voice of the speaker grew thick; he had
buried both hands in his trousers' pockets and was gazing before him
through the fumes of the smoking cigar.

"So we thought that night, as we lay in bed.--Did Little L sleep that
night? In the days following, when we assembled in class, it did not
seem so. Before, it had been as if an imp were sitting in the place
where the lad sat, and, like a rooster, had crowed it over the whole
class--now it was as if there were a void in the place--so still and
pale he sat in his place.

"As when a man flicks the dust from the wings of a butterfly--so was it
with the little lad--I can not describe it otherwise.

"On afternoons one always saw him now walking with his brother. He may
have felt that Big L would now find less companionship than ever among
the others--so he provided company for him. And there the two went,
then, arm in arm, always around about the Karreehof and across the court
with the trees in it, one as well as the other with head bent to the
ground, so that one scarcely saw that they ever spoke a word."

Again there came a pause in the narrative, again I had to fill the empty
glass of the colonel, who smoked his cigar faster and faster.

"But all this," he continued, "would perhaps have worn itself out in
course of time and everything have