Part 24 (2/2)
”What is it, Johnson?” came the reply in the soft sleepy tones of a girl.
”Here is a girl out here who is lost. She is hungry and wants a place to sleep. Will you see to her? I am on duty.”
”Certainly. Go back to your post, Johnson. I will be out in a minute.”
”All right.” The soldier saluted and walked off leaving Jeanne a prey to conflicting emotions.
In a few moments the flap of the tent was pushed aside, and the slight figure of a girl about Jeanne's own age emerged from it.
”You are lost?” she asked advancing toward Jeanne and speaking quickly.
”And hungry, I think Johnson said. Come, we'll have something to eat, and then go to bed. Are you tired?”
Jeanne nodded, unable to speak.
”Sit here by the fire while I fix things. Jim,” to one of the men, ”this girl is hungry. Will you help me get something for her to eat?”
”'Course I will, Miss Bob.” The man sprang to his feet and walked briskly away disappearing into what Jeanne afterward learned was the commissary department.
”We'll have something in a jiffy,” remarked the girl encouragingly, beginning to poke up the fire.
”See here, Miss Bob, let me do that,” and another of the men ran to her side. ”I reckon Jim and me can fix things. 'Tain't no work for you.”
Soon cold chicken, bread, and hot coffee were placed before the hungry girl and she ate ravenously.
”I didn't know that soldiers had chickens to eat,” she remarked with a sigh of satisfaction as she finished the last morsel.
The girl called Bob laughed merrily, the men joining in heartily.
”We don't usually,” and Bob controlled her risibles with difficulty, ”but you see a whole heap of them walked right into camp, and so of course we ate them.”
”Wasn't it queer that they should come right into camp?” said serious Jeanne. ”I always thought that you had to run after them to catch them.”
Again the girl and the men laughed.
”Of course they didn't exactly come here,” said Bob comfortably, ”but we've got the smartest regiment in the whole Confederate army. I verily believe that it could catch and skin a hog without a man leaving the ranks. Oh, they are fine foragers!”
”Forager?” Jeanne looked mystified. ”I wonder if d.i.c.k is a forager!”
”Who is d.i.c.k?”
”d.i.c.k is my brother in the army,” said Jeanne proudly.
”Well, if he is a soldier you can depend upon it that he is a forager,”
said Bob with decision. ”Which side is your brother on?”
”The Union.”
The smile died away from the girl's lips at the reply, and she looked at Jeanne with coldness.
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