Bevis Part 27

"But how shall we know one another?" said George.

"Who's friends, and who's enemies," said Fred.

"Else we shall all hit one another anyhow," said another.

"Stick feathers in our hats."

"Ribbons round our arms would be best," said Cecil. "Hats may be knocked off."

"Ribbons will do first-rate," said Bevis. "I'll have blue; Ted, you have red. You can buy heaps of ribbon for nothing."

"Phil," said Ted, "have you got any money?"

"Half-a-crown."

"Lend us, then."

"No, I shan't," said Phil: "I'll buy the ribbons myself."

"Let's have a skirmish now," said Bill. "Come on, Val," and he began to whirl his hands about.

"Stop that," said Bevis. "Ted, there's a truce, and if you let your fellows fight it's breaking it. Catch hold of Bill--Mark, Cecil, hold him."

Bill was seized, and hustled round behind the oak, and kept there till he promised to be quiet.

"But when are we going to begin?" asked Jack.

"Be quick," said Luke.

"War! war!" shouted half a dozen, kicking up their heels.

"Hold your noise," said Ted, cuffing one of his followers. "Can't you see we're getting on as fast as we can. Bevis, where are we going to fight?"

"In the Plain," said Bevis. "That's the best place."

"Plenty of room for a big battle," said Ted. "O, you've got it on the map, I see."

The Plain was the great pasture beside the New Sea, where Bevis and Mark bathed and ran about in the suns.h.i.+ne. It was some seventy or eighty acres in extent, a splendid battle-field.

"We're not going to march," said Mark, taking something on himself as lieutenant.

"We're not going to march," said Bevis. "But I did not tell you to say so; I mean we are not going to march the thousand miles, Ted; we will suppose that."

"All right," said Ted.

"But we're going to have camps," continued Bevis. "You're going to have your camp just outside the hedge towards the hills, because you live that side, and you will come that way. Here,"--he showed Ted a circle, drawn on the map to represent a camp,--"that's yours; and this is ours on this side, towards our house, as we shall come that way."

"The armies will encamp in sight of each other," said Phil. "That's quite proper. Go on, Bevis. Shall we send out scouts?"

"We shall light fires and have proper camps," said Bevis.

"And bring our great-coats and cloaks, and a hamper of grub,"

interrupted Mark, anxious to show that he knew all about it.

Bevis frowned, but went on. "And I shall send one of my soldiers to be with you, and you will send one of yours to be with me--"

"Whatever for?" said Ted. "That's a curious thing."

"Well, it's to know when to begin. When we are all there, we'll hoist up a flag--a handkerchief will do on a stick--and you will hoist up yours, and then when the war is to begin, you will send back my soldier, and I will send back yours, and they will cross each other as they are running, and when your soldier reaches you, and mine reaches me--"

"I see," said Ted, "I see. Then we are to march out so as to begin quite fair."

"That's it," said Bevis. "So as to begin at the same minute, and not one before the other. I have got it all ready, and you need not have sent people to worry me to make haste about the war."

"Well, how was I to know if you never said anything?" said Ted.

"And who are we to be?" said Val. "Saxons and Normans, or Crusaders, or King Arthur--"

"We're all to be Romans," said Bevis.

"Then it will be the Civil War," said Phil, who had read most history.

"Of course it will," said Bevis, "and I am to be Julius Caesar, and Ted is to be Pompey."

"I won't be Pompey," said Ted; "Pompey was beat."

"You must," said Bevis.

"I shan't."

"But you _must_."

"I won't be beaten."

"I shall beat you easily."

"That you won't," very warmly.

"Indeed I shall," said Bevis quite composedly, "as I am Caesar I shall beat you very easily."

"Of course we shall," added Mark.

"You won't; I've got the biggest soldiers, and I shall drive you anyhow."

"No, you won't."

"I've got Val and Phil and Tim, and I mean to have Ike, so now--"

"There, I told you," said Mark to Bevis. "He's got all the biggest, and Ike is a huge big donk of a fellow."