Part 24 (1/2)
Rodney had secured quite profitable employment that winter His mother's health had ih the openone warht the news that ”Dan Morgan was having hard work to raise a body of riflemen” He had been appointed a colonel the previous fall, and, as soon as he was released froo to the assistance of Washi+ngton at Morristown
The man talked loudly, and the noise of the loom ceased while Mrs
Allison listened After supper that evening she said, ”I hear that Colonel Morgan, of who men”
”Yes, mother, and there is no finer ton”
”I've thought, since Angus caht enter the service”
Rodney looked up quickly ”Why, if I could get away I'd like to go, but I--my duty is at home”
”I am well, now,” she said, ”and affairs are in such condition I think we can care for theht not to”
”My boy, you have ive your service, your young life perhaps, to the cause of liberty”
Rodney sprang up, his face aflaerness ”Do you ht our battles if we are to win Your father is not here to go to the front, as he would have done had he lived, and--and I feel sure he would like to have the house of Allison represented in a cause he had so much at heart, and I'm afraid I should make a poor soldier, Rodney”
”Mother, you are braver than any soldier who ever went to war!”
And so it happened that the following Monday, dressed in the ho the rifle he had taken froe of the Wyandotte chieftain, Rodney Allison left for Winchester to join Morgan's command
CHAPTER XXIII
IN THE THICK OF IT
”Can ye shoot straight an' often, travel light, starve an' yet fight on an empty sto, Colonel Morgan, and think I can be of service in your command”
”Where have I seen you? Yer face looks familiar I have it, your name is Allison an' you were the little feller as showed me the way to the rear of the redskins the day they ambushed Wood out in the Ohio country Want ye, I reckon I do! I want five hundred like ye”
And thus it was that Rodney found welcoan at Winchester, and the welcome was so hearty that it helped put the boy on friendly footing with his fellows at the start
Theto the bad condition of the roads On the way recruits joined theton's headquarters, they nuhty men, considerably less than the five hundred wanted
One of the recruits who joined thean attracted general attention, it was so cordial
He was a straight, sinewy felloith shrewd, kindly gray eyes and ”sandy” hair He was clad like a frontiersman and the ood an' glorious, Zeb, I've seen ye in my dreams followin' me up the ladder at the barrier, but I never expected to see ye in the flesh again Where's yer Fidus--what's his name, that Lovell boy?”[1]
”I left him in Boston after the evacuation, an' haven't heard from him since How are you?”