In the surgeon's wagon

He chuckled. "No, course not. Else I'd've signed me papers, not made me mark, like."

"Well you're the fastest student I've ever had, that's for certain. Yes, the next letter - the next two letters are both T, which makes the tuh sound. Like tea that you drink, or toast, or two, take, tomato..."

He grinned. "Prob'ly the oldest, an' all, lass. Tee for tea, that's easy. Show me?"

She wrote a large and a small T off to the side, but then she had to pause and think a moment. "Well, T is also for tree, so here. I'll draw a tree that has the T for the trunk, and the crosspiece can be some of the branches. T for tree, t for trunk, t for twig, even! Tee, Are, Eee, Eee, tree."

"Right. Tee, for tree. I think I c'n 'member that. So, um, lemme see if'n I can 'member the names... See, oh, tee, tee, oh... an' what's the last one, then?"

"That's an Enn. It makes the nnnn sound for Cottonnnn. And the nnn sound in Evannnns. N for no, nest, now, nurse, Ned..."

"'En' for nest. Sounds almost like the 'em' for Maggie."

"That's right, and it looks similar too. Here's an En... and here's the Em. And they're right next to each other in the alphabet too. But the Em has two peaks, like mountains. Em says mmm for mountains. The En just has one - which is nnext to nnone."

He looked at them on the paper. "I see," he said. "Officer N is all sharp and pointy, and Soldier N has one arch, not two like M has. M for mountain. And Maggie." He put the paper down and looked at her.

"Thank you, Maggie. It... it really means a lot to me, you know. An' I probably said that before, but it does. And I can't tell you just how much, neither."

"All right, all right, you've said," she replied complacently. "Are you ready for another word test?"

He took a breath. "All right..."

She laughed. "No need to worry! I won't beat you if you miss one. Not like some schoolmasters do. Now let me think of some good words..."

"Felt me dad's belt often enough as a young'un anyways. An' I reckon me back's more'n makin' up for the ones I din't get."

"Aww, I know, Gable," she said, giving him a small kiss on the cheek. Such a quantity of kisses he was earning today! "Here you are. See what you make of these."

He took the slate and frowned at it. "Um. Nnn, o, tuh, not. Or, could be oh, nn, oh, tuh, note... but it ain't got the baggage train curly ee on it. And it looks a bit like the start of me surname, so, not?" He looked up at her, awaiting her verdict.

"Very good! Yes, it would need the helper e if it were going to be note. Like this," she said, adding the necessary e to the end of the word. "Now it says note."

"So... so the baggage train ee makes one of these say its name?" he asked, pointing to the A, E, I and O in turn on the sheet of paper.

Maggie thought for a moment, mentally saying several words to herself... "Gabriel Cotton, I believe you're right! I never thought of it that way before. Very clever, you are. You'll be teaching me next. And the rest of the 60th."

It had been fairly obvious to him, but then, he was used to listening to orders and instructions and remembering them without any need for writing things down - it was how his mind had been trained from when he was very young.

"I won't," he said, but he looked pleased at receiving her praise.

"Next one's kuh, a, tuh. Cat?" He looked up.

"That's it. Cat."

"Don't I get a kiss for that? Or do you want me to do the next one first?" He smiled at her before looking back down. "Right... oh. Um." He looked at the paper. "Oh, soldier 'jee'. Guh, o, tuh... got?"

"Yes. You'll get a kiss when you read the whole slate, if you are good. Next one?"

"Aww..." He looked at the next word. "Tuh, e, nn... ten. This is hard work, you know, lass. Um. A, nn, tuh... ant. And that last one looks like the first one in that column, a bit. So, tuh, e, nn, tuh... tent?"

He looked up, wanting her approval.

And approval he received in the form of a kiss on his forehead. "Very well done! Yes, it is hard work, isn't it? I'm not used to thinking this hard, or having such a demanding student. So what's next?"

"I don't know. Don't think I can think much more. What do I have to do for a proper kiss... on the mouth, like?