Part 23 (2/2)
Rodney winked first one eye and then the other and d.i.c.k was answered.
”It's the strangest thing I ever heard of, and I am in a hurry to know all about it, Come on; our company is up at the end of the street. We occupy the post of honor on the right of the line, because we are the only company in the regiment that is fully uniformed. We'll leave our horses at the stable line, and Captain Jones will make a State Guard of you before you know it.”
Not to dwell too long upon matters that have little bearing upon our story, it will be enough to say that Rodney was duly presented to Captain Jones, who was informed that he had come all the way from Louisiana to join a partisan company. He was a Barrington boy, well up in military matters, and desired to be sworn into the State service without the loss of time. d.i.c.k was careful not to say too much for fear that he should let out some secrets that Rodney had not yet had opportunity to tell him. Of course the captain was delighted to see the recruit from Louisiana, shook him by the hand as if he had been a younger brother, and sent for an officer to take his descriptive list. He was not required to pa.s.s the surgeon, and the oath he took was to the effect that he would obey Governor Jackson and n.o.body else. This being done d.i.c.k took him off to introduce him to the members of his mess.
”But before I do that,” said d.i.c.k, halting just outside the captain's tent and drawing Rodney off on one side, ”I want to know just where you stand, and whether or not you have had any reason to change your politics since I last saw you. Are you as good a rebel as you used to be?”
”I never was a rebel,” exclaimed Rodney, with some heat. ”I am ready to fight for my State at any time; but I deny the right of my Governor to compel me to obey such a man as General Lacey. I didn't want to be sworn into the Confederate army, and that was what sent me up here.”
”That's all right,” replied d.i.c.k. ”I'm glad things turned out that way; otherwise you wouldn't be in my company now. But you don't seem to be as red-hot as you used to be. You say you don't believe in burning out Union men.”
”I certainly do not. I believe in fighting the men, but not in abusing the women and children.”
”The Union women are like our own-worse than the men,” answered d.i.c.k. ”That is what I was trying to get at, and I must warn you to be careful how you talk to anybody but me; and I, being an officer of the State Guard, can't stand too much treasonable nonsense,” he added, drawing himself up to his full height and scowling fiercely at his friend.
”I suppose not; but I don't see that there is anything treasonable in my saying that I don't believe in making war upon those who cannot defend themselves.”
”If some of those defenseless persons had been the means of getting you bushwhacked and your buildings destroyed, you might think differently. But come on, and I will make you acquainted with some of the best among the boys.”
There were only two ”boys” in the tent into which he was conducted, and they were almost old enough to be gray-headed; and as they were getting ready to go on post, Rodney had little more than time to say he was glad to know them. Then d.i.c.k said he had some writing to do for the captain that would keep him busy for half an hour, and in the meantime Rodney would have to look out for himself.
”Here's a late copy of the Richmond Whig, if you would like to see it,” said one of his new messmates, who having thrown a powder horn and bullet pouch over his shoulder, stood holding a long squirrel rifle in one hand while he extended the paper with the other. ”There's an editorial on the inside that may interest you. If the man who wrote it had been trying to express the sentiments of this mess he could not have come nearer to them. Good-by for a couple of hours.”
When he was left alone in the tent Rodney hunted up the editorial in question and read as follows:
”We are not enough in the secrets of our authorities to specify the day on which Jeff Davis will dine at the White House, and Ben McCulloch take his siesta in General Siegel's gilded tent. We should dislike to produce any disappointment by naming too soon or too early a day; but it will save trouble if the gentlemen will keep themselves in readiness to dislodge at a moment's notice. If they are not smitten, however, with more than judicial blindness, they do not need this warning at our hands. They must know that the measure of their iniquities is fall, and the patience of outraged freedom is exhausted. Among all the brave men from the Rio Grande to the Potomac, and stretching over into insulted, indignant and infuriated Maryland, there is but one word on every lip 'Was.h.i.+ngton'; and one sentiment in every heart vengeance on the tyrants who pollute the capital of the Republic!”
The paper was full of such idle vaporings as these, but they fired Rodney Gray's Southern heart to such an extent that he was almost ready to quarrel with d.i.c.k Graham when the latter came into the tent an hour later, and began discussing the situation in his cool, level-headed way.
”Yes; I have seen the article,” said he, when Rodney asked him what he thought of it, ”and it is nothing but the veriest bosh.”
”d.i.c.k Graham, how dare you?” exclaimed Rodney.
”Oh, I have heard such talk as that before, and right here in this tent from boys who have known me ever since I was knee-high to a duck,” replied d.i.c.k. ”'The tyrants who pollute the capital of the Republic!' The men who are there, are there because they got the most votes; and in this country the majority rules. That's me. Now mark what I tell you: The majority of the people will say that this Union shall not be broken up.”
”Then you believe that might makes right, do you?”
”I don't know whether I do or not. If we have the power, we have the right to rise up and shake off the existing form of government and form one that will suit us better. Abe Lincoln said so in one of his speeches, and that's his language almost word for word. But whether the Northern people, having the power, have the right to make us stay in the Union when we don't want to, is a question that is a little too deep for me.”
”They have neither the power nor the right,” said Rodney angrily. ”But you always were as obstinate as a mule, and we can't agree if we talk till doomsday. Now listen while I tell you what I have been through since I said good-by to you in the Barrington depot.”
To repeat what he said would be to write a good portion of this book over again. He told the story pretty nearly as we have tried to tell it, with this difference: He touched very lightly upon the courage he had displayed and the risk he had run in helping Tom Percival out of the corn-crib in the wood-cutters' camp, although he was loud in his praises of Tom's coolness and bravery. d.i.c.k Graham found it hard to believe some parts of the narrative.
”So Tom wasn't satisfied with risking his neck by going to St. Louis to see Lyon, but had to come back through Iron and St. Francois counties and try to raise another company of Home Guards there. He's either all pluck or else plum crazy.”
”He's got a straight head on his shoulders; I'll bear witness to that,” replied Rodney. ”What do you suppose he will do at home? Where's his company?”
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