Just before leaving home for the Islands Bertie had been taught a bit of a poem which he had recited at a Sunday-school concert. One line ran:

The soldiers were strolling about in pairs and singly, and Bertie stood near the fountain watching a fine-looking fellow who had stopped for a cool drink of sparkling water. Suddenly the words of his recitation came into his mind and without hesitation he stepped up to the stranger and said:

"Man, are you a soldier fighting for the right?" and then stood still looking at the soldier as if waiting for a reply.

"Who are you?" asked the stranger.

"Oh,

The soldier's name was John Lewis; he turned away and rejoined his companions, but the words of the fair-faced, soft-voiced child still sounded in his ear. He was not fighting for the right; he was perfectly well aware that he had enlisted upon the side of the leader who is bound to oppose the right under all circumstances.

He knew that the banner under which he was marching had sin written all over it. It was Satan's banner, and he was doing work for that leader that was telling upon his own life. It already, young as he was, began to show in his face, in his unsteady step and foul breath. He knew that so surely was he bound to the service of that master, that if he could have found a glass of liquor upon the grounds he would not have stopped to drink at the fountain, and would not have given Bertie the opportunity for his childish questioning.

Some way, the voice would not be stilled. "Fighting for the right!" If not, why not? Because I am a fool; he did not say this aloud, but in his own heart he knew it was true. And there came to him the memory of a quiet country village, of a little sitting-room, a round stand, a Bible, a chair where he knew that mother often knelt and prayed for him, asking that he might be led to enlist under that other banner, even the banner of Jesus Christ.

"What is going on under that big tent?" asked one of his comrades.

"They are having some sort of a religious meeting, I reckon," replied another.

"We may as well stroll over that way and look in for a while. It will do no harm to mix in a little religion, I suppose."

And so the three "looked in" upon a religious service held in the great tabernacle. Strangely enough the speaker who occupied the platform uttered words which exactly matched John Lewis' mood. The others thought them commonplace enough, but to John Lewis' newly-awakened consciousness they seemed simply wonderful.

"That man is fighting for the right," he said to himself; "now if I were! What if I should turn right about and resign my commission in Satan's army and enlist in the army of the Lord? What if I should now? Wouldn't the boys stare?" and he chuckled inwardly over the thought of their amazement at such a move on his part. "And what would mother say? I don't know but she would die of joy. That would be a pity, but, after all, it might be better than to die of grief, and I reckon she'll do that if I keep on fighting under the old leader. I believe I will make a swap."

"Next summer" had come. Again John Lewis joined his comrades on an excursion to the Islands; again he drank from the fountain, and as he turned away he said to a friend:

"It was right here that the little fellow asked me that question. I would like to see him again and tell him I am fighting for the right now."

But Bertie was not to know of the result of his interest in the stranger. He has never seen his soldier friend since that day of his first missionary effort, but we hope that both are still fighting for the right.