saw it all.

"Bear up, old chap! Heroes grin--and conquer things," said the officer,
while his heart ached for the silent child; and in the end, through
sea-sickness and a longing for old easy days, G. W. did grin and
"conquer things."

Then they came to Cuba! Under the dark palms and cacti, once more the
white tents were pitched; and facing the fact of approaching battles,
the men made ready, but still lightened the heavy hours by song and
joke, and boisterously welcomed the old comradeship of G. W.

G. W. revived when once his feet touched solid land. "I doan't like de
water," he explained; "it's shaky an' onsartain an'--an'--wet! Dere's
too much ob it too, an' when it gets wobbly, whar are yo?"

So the boy cheerfully took up again his dancing and singing. War grew
again to seem to him a matter of some other day. The regiment seemed
merely to have shifted its pleasure-ground. To be sure, there were fewer
hours alone with the Colonel, for he was very busy, but G. W. followed
him about at a distance whenever and wherever he could. If love could
shield the young officer from harm, surely never was he safer.

But presently G. W. began to form new and more personal ideas of war;
his imagination, fed by the stories he had heard, sprang to life.
Perhaps war wasn't anything they would know about beforehand. That might
be the reason for the look of anxiety he had noticed upon the face of
his Colonel. Possibly war was like a great cloud hurled along by the
hurricane--G. W. knew how _that_ looked. They might all be sitting by
the camp-fire some night, when suddenly war would descend upon them and
find them unprepared. With that thought G. W.'s face took on an
expression of anxiety. He clung closer to his Colonel; he did not intend
that war should find his Colonel unattended by body-guard.

Colonel Austin often took heed of the faithful little shadow, and began
to fear anew for the time when he might be obliged to "go to the front"
and leave the boy behind.

"G. W., you must never go beyond that point alone," he said one day,
naming a hill a half mile or so distant. "These are not play-days,
comrade; I want to feel that you are safe. I cannot afford to worry
about you now. Obedience first, old man, you know, and then you are on
the way to being a hero."

"Yes, sah!" The small black hand gave the salute gravely. G. W. never by
any possible chance forgot his military training. "But, Colonel, you
goes furder dan de hill ri