The hut was both cold and dark. There were no windows to admit the
light of the waning day, but through every crack and chink penetrated
the sharp, bitter air of January. Alva Jukes, standing in the doorway,
saw only white ovals of faces staring upward from the wretched pallets
and, though he was a brash, hard-tempered man, oft called upon to
witness suffering, the sight of so much unnecessary misery fed the
latent rebellion in his Scotch-Irish heart. He struck a posture, put a
hand to a hip as if caressing a sword-hilt and mimicked the voice of a
colonel well known but not well loved by the brigade--
“And what have you got for supper, my brave fellows?”