Uncle Sam's Boys in the Ranks

A LESSON IN RESPECT FOR THE UNIFORM AW, what's the difference between a soldier and a loafer? demanded Bunny Hepburn. A soldier ain't a loafer, and it takes nerve to be a soldier.

It's a job for the bravest kind of a man, retorted Jud Jeffers indignantly.

Answer my c'nundrum, insisted Bunny. It ain't a decent conundrum, retorted Jud, with dignity, for his father had served as a volunteer soldier in the war with Spain.

Go on, Bunny, broke in another boy in the group, laughing.

I'll be the goat. What is the difference between a soldier and a loafer?

A soldier gets paid and fed, and the other loafer doesn't, retorted Bunny, with a broadening grin.

A moment later, when he realized that his joke had failed to raise a laugh, Bunny looked disappointed.

Aw, go on, flared up Jud Jeffers. You don't know anything about a soldier. But my dad does, retorted Bunny positively. "e;Dad says soldiers don't produce anything for a living; that they take their pay out of the pockets of the public, and then laugh at the public for fools