SI CALLED out to the other boys by name to come up and join him.
The rebel Sergeant1 mentally tallied2 off each name as it was called. A flush of shame and anger mounted to his face as Si concluded.
"Gol darn hit," he said, "you'uns hain't got ez many ez we'uns; they hain't nigh ez good men ez we'uns, an' they'uns ain't heah. We'uns air Tennesseans, an' you'uns hain't."
"We've got enough, an' they're good enough," said Si sententiously. "Injianny turns out better men than Tennessee ever dreamed o' doing."
"I don't believe hit a mite3," said the Sergeant, stooping down and picking up a piece of cedar4, which made a formidable club. "We'uns is not a-gwine back with yo'uns nary a step. By rights, we'uns orter take yo'uns back with we'uns. But I'm willin' to call hit off, and let yo'uns go ef yo'uns 'll let we'uns go. Is hit a bargain?"
"Not by 40 rows o' apple trees it ain't," said Si, stepping back a little to get a better range, and fixing his bayonet. "I've set my heart on takin' you back to Co. Q, an' back to Co. Q you'll go, if Si Klegg knows himself."38
"And you'll go in a hurry, too," said Shorty. "It's gettin' late, and I'm always afraid to be out after dark. Mosey, now!"
The other rebels were picking up clubs similar to the Sergeant's and casting their eyes on him for the signal to attack.
"See here," said Si desperately5, cocking his gun. "Don't waste no more time in words. This hain't a debatin' society. You're goin' back to Co. Q or going somewhere else thunderin' quick. Sergeant, if you make a move agin me I'll surely blow your head off en you, an' jab my bayonet through the next man. My partner, Shorty, is a worse man than I am, an' I can't tell how many of you he'll kill. He's awful quick-tempered, too, towards evening, an' liable to begin shooting any minute without warnin'. It'll save several lives if you start right off on the jump, straight toward the rear, an' keep it up, with out looking to the right or left, until you reach Co. Q. You'll find the trail we made comin' in. Take it this minute."
The rebel Sergeant's eyes looked directly into the dark muzzle6 of Si's gun. They glanced along the barrel, and met one eye looking directly through the sights, while the other was closed, in the act of taking deliberate aim. He decided7 with great promptness that there were many reasons why he should prefer to be a live rebel in a Yankee prison, rather than a badly-disfigured dead one in a lonely cedar thicket8. He dropped his club, turned around, and made his way along the path over which Si had come. The rest followed, with Si and Shorty a few paces in the rear.
Palpitating with pride, Si marched his prisoners up to the company, who gave him three cheers. The Captain ordered him to report with his prisoners to the Colonel.
Si Reports to the Colonel 38
The Colonel praised him with words that made his blood tingle9.40
The skirmishing off to the right had now ceased. The rebels had fallen back to the next hilltop, and the 200th Ind. was ordered to go into camp where it stood.
Preparing Supper 40
It was a fine place for a camp. The mud of the day before was frozen into stony10 hardness. The wagons11 had no difficulty in coming up. There was wood and water in abundance, and it seemed that the command "Break ranks March!" had hardly been uttered when great, bright, comfort-giving fires of fragrant12 cedar rails flashed up all along the line.
Si and Shorty found several cedar stumps13 and logs, which they rolled together, and made a splendid fire. They cooked themselves an ample supper of fried pork, toasted hardtack, and strong, fragrant coffee, which they devoured14 with an appetite and a keen enjoyment15 only possible to healthy young men who have had a day of active manuvering and marching in the crisp, chill air of December.
Then they gathered a lot of cedar branches, and made a thick mattress16 of them near the fire, upon which to spread their blankets for the night.
This was a new suggestion by Shorty, and an amazing success.
"I declare, Shorty," said Si, as he lay down on the bed to try it, "I often wonder where you get all your ideas. For a man who wasn't raised on the Wabash you know an awful sight. Mebbe, if you'd actually been born in Posey County you'd a-knowed enough to be a Jigadier-Brindle. Then I'd a lost you for a pard. This's a great invention. Why, it's softer and comfortabler than one of mother's feather beds. When I get out of the army, I'm going to sleep on nothin' but cedar boughs17."
"There, you're at it again the Wabash forever," returned Shorty, good-humoredly. "They raise the finest corn and cattle in the world on the Wabash, I'll admit, and some fairly good soldiers. But where'll you get any cedars18 there to make beds with? You'll have to go back to sleepin' on wheat straw and corn husks, with chicken-feather pillers. But after42 the way you stood up to that rebel Sergeant to-day I'll never say another word about ager and milk-sick en the Wabash, and I'll lick any other feller that does. There wasn't a speck19 of ager in your gizzard when you ordered him forward, or you'd blow his Southern Confederacy head off."
"There was more ager there than you thought, Shorty," Si admitted softly. "I was awfully20 scared, for there was six to us two, and if that feller 'd had the right kind of sand he'd a-jumped me at once, before I could get my gun up. The moment he began to palaver21 I knowed I had him. But I'd 'a' died in my tracks before I'd let him go, and I knowed you would, too. You're the best pard a feller ever had."
And he reached over and took Shorty's rough hand and squeezed it affectionately.
"I can bet on you every time, even when I don't think it's quite safe to bet on myself. And, Shorty," he continued, with his eyes kindling22, "it was worth all that we've gone through since we've been in the army, even all that time in the rain, to have the Colonel speak as he did to us before the rest of the boys. I'd be willing to enlist23 three years more if father and mother and sisters, and and Annabel could have heard him. I tell you, war has some glorious things in it, after all."
He sat there on his bed before the fire, with his feet curled up under him in the comfortable way that it takes months of field service to acquire, and gazed steadily24 into the bank of glowing coals. They suffused25 his face and body with their generous warmth, and helped lift his soul toward the skies.43
He was much happier than he had ever been before in his life. The trials of the day before were hardly more than a far-away dream. The fears and anxieties of the coming battle were forgotten. The ruddy embers became a radiant vista27, which Pride and Hope and Joy filled with all that he wanted to see. He saw there the dear old home on the Wabash, his father seated by the evening lamp reading the paper, while his mother knit on the other side of the table. His sisters were busy with some feminine trifles, and Annabel had come in to learn the news. They would hear what he had done, and of the Colonel's words of praise before the regiment28, and his father's heart would glow with pride and his mother's eyes suffuse26 with tears. And Annabel but it passed words, passed thought, almost, what she would say and think.
Just then tattoo29 rang out clear and musical on the chill night air. The rattling30 military "good night" had never before had any special charms for Si. But now he thought it an unusually sweet composition.
"I declare," he said to Shorty, "that sheepskin band of our'n is improving. They're getting to play real well. But I ought to write a few lines home before taps. Got any paper. Shorty?"
"Much paper you'll find in this regiment after that rain," said Shorty contemptuously, as he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and started to fall in for roll-call. "Every mite of paper anybody has was soaked to spitwads. But mebbe the Orderly might have a sheet."
After roll-call Si went to the Orderly-Sergeant.44
Nothing in reason could then be refused Si, and the Orderly tore a couple of leaves out of the back of his treasured diary, which had escaped the rain, and handed them to him. Si fished his stub of a pencil out of his blouse-pocket, laid the paper on the back of a tin plate, and began:
"Somewhere in Tennessee,
December the 27th, 1862.
"Dere Annabel: We're movin' on Murphysboro,
where we expect a big fite. There's bin31 fitin' goin'
on ever since we left Nashville, but the 200th Ind.
hain't had no hand in it so far, except this after
noon me and Shorty"
He stopped, stuck his pencil in his mouth, and began to study just what words he should use to describe the occurrence. He wanted to tell her all that was bubbling in his heart, and yet he was afraid she would think him an intolerable boaster, if he told it in just the words that came to him. He was more afraid of that little country girl's disapproval32 than of all the rebels in Murfreesboro.
There were yells, the rattling of chains, and the sound of galloping33 hoofs35 coming toward him.
"Hi, there; stop them condemned36 mules37!" shouted the voice of a teamster.
Si jumped to his feet, for the mules were charging directly for his fire, and were almost upon him. He dropped paper, pan and pencil, and jumped to one side, just in time to avoid a rush which scattered38 his fire, his carefully-prepared bed, and all his be longings39 under 24 flying, hard-pounding hoofs.
After the Mules Stampeded 44
"Blast mules, anyhow," said the driver, coming up with his whip in his hand. "I didn't hev nothin' for them to eat but a cottonwood pole that I cut down in the bottom. But they must have smelt40 fodder41 over there somewhere, and they broke for it like the devil beatin' tanbark. Hope you weren't hurt, pard."
Si and Shorty fixed42 up their fire again, rearranged46 their scattered cedar boughs, and did the best they could with their torn blankets.
Si found that a mule's hoof34 had landed squarely on his tin plate, mashed43 all future usefulness out of it, and stamped his letter to Annabel into unrecognizability.
He threw the rent fragments into the fire, sighed deeply, and crawled under the blankets with Shorty, just as three sounding taps on the bass-drum commanded silence and lights out in the camp.
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1
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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tallied
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| v.计算，清点( tally的过去式和过去分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合 | |
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mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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7
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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tingle
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| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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14
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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15
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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18
cedars
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| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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19
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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palaver
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| adj.壮丽堂皇的；n.废话，空话 | |
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22
kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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23
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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24
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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25
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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suffuse
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| v.(色彩等)弥漫，染遍 | |
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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28
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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29
tattoo
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| n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于 | |
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30
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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31
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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32
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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33
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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34
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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35
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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36
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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37
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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38
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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39
longings
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| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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40
smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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41
fodder
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| n.草料；炮灰 | |
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42
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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43
mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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