Trooper Tales — page 173: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE GOOD WHICH WAS IN HIM. No trooper said that Allen was not qualified to be troop- - clerk. He had formerly been a college student. He had influential friends in Washington. Taps had just been played over Cooper, the old clerk. And because the cap- tain picked out Allen to take his place, the boys were angry. The clerkship is desirable in a cavalry regiment, because it relieves a man from all calls and troop duty. Allen might have been a college professor or the son of the President, but among Uncle Sam’s horsemen he was only a recruit. And it was galling to see a recruit slip out from his share of hard work. The boys got over it, however, for the new clerk proved to be a good fellow. As a cavalryman, Allen was athletic and satisfactory. Some way, back in the States, he had never taken pains to show people the-good which was in him. As a matter of fact, he was little heard from until the time when Uncle Sam called for men to make soldiers out of. There is a bunch of troopers down in Porto Rico to-day who know that Allen once did a noble thing. Ten days after he joined the troop another recruit came down from Washington. He was a slender little chap, GEomichbooks