Teddy's Button by Amy Le Feuvre

'I want to go to heaven,' Nancy said thoughtfully.
Then Teddy came back to earth.
'Have you enlisted yet?' he asked.
'I'm not going to be a soldier,' said Nancy quickly.
'Well, you'll never get to heaven if you don't fight for our Captain
now. He won't let you inside the gates unless you belong to Him. Girls
can fight just as much as boys.'
'Of course they can. I can fight as well as you, button-boy!'
'Why don't you fight your enemy, then?'
'What enemy?'
'My enemy is called Ipse. He's a dreadful trouble to me. You've got
yours—the thing inside you that makes you want to do naughty things;
you've got to fight it, and do the good things instead. I've had two fights
with Ipse to-day.'
'Have you? Do tell me!'
'You mustn't tell any one, then. It was in church this morning.
There was an old woman in front of me, and she'd untied her bonnet,
and the ribbons fell over in our pew. She went fast asleep in the sermon,
and nodded her head back till it almost tumbled off her head, and Ipse
thought if I would put out my hand and just give a tiny, weeny pull at
the ribbon, it would come right off!'
Nancy clapped her hands. 'Why didn't you? What fun!'
'I wanted to let Ipse have his way dreadful, but I remembered I
must fight him, and I did. I asked my Captain to help me, and then I put
both my hands in my pockets, and screwed up my eyes tight. But I was
glad when she woke up and tied her bonnet on again.'
'That was much gooder than I could have been. What's the other
fight you had?'
'Uncle Jake brought some fresh honey from the hives, and he put it
on a plate in the window in the kitchen. He said when he went out of the
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