ANNABEL APPRISED OF IT--SHORTY MEETS JERUSHA.
ANNABEL came in just as the reading of the letter was finished and
her arrival caused a commotion in the family, as it always did, which
momentarily distracted attention from the missive and Shorty's absence.
She and the mother and daughters had to exchange kisses and news about
the health of both families. Then she had to give a filial kiss to the
Deacon, who had already begun to assume paternal airs toward her, and
finally she got around to Si. Neither of them had yet got to the point
of "kissing before folks," and had to be content with furtive
squeezing of hands. Si's heart was aching to have Annabel read Capt.
McGillicuddy's letter, yet such was his shame-faced modesty that not for
the world would he have alluded to it before the family. If he had been
alone with her, he might have slipped the letter unopened into her hand,
with a shy request for her to read it, but so sternly was the Deacon and
his family set against anything like "vainglory" and "self-praise"
that he could not bring himself to mention that such a letter had been
received. At last, when full particulars had been given about the spread
of measles and whooping-cough, who was to preach and who to be baptized
at the coming quarterly meeting, Maria's active mind turned to things
nearer Si's heart, and she said:
"O, Si's got sich a nice letter from his officer-boss, his Corporal, or
Colonel, or General, or whatever they call him--Mister--"
"My Captain--Capt. McGillicuddy, Maria," said Si, reddening at Maria's
indifference to and ignorance of military titles.
"Yes, Mr. McMillifuddy. Did you ever hear of such a ridiculous name?"
"McGillicuddy--Capt. McGillicuddy, Maria. Why can't you get his name
right?"
"Well, if I had sich a name as that I wouldn't expect people to git it
right. There's no sense in havin' a Dutch name that makes your tongue
crack like a whip. Well, this Mr. McFillemgoody is Si's boss, and he
writes a nice letter, and says Si done so well at Chickamaugy that some
other boss--a Colonel or Corporal--"
"The Colonel, Maria. The Colonel commands the whole regiment. Won't you
never know the difference? A Colonel's much higher than a Corporal. You
girls never will learn nothin'."
"Well, I never kin tell t'other from which," replied Maria, petulantly.
"And I don't have to. I don't care a hill o' beans whether a Corporal
bosses or a Colonel, or t'other way. Anyhow, Si's no longer a Corporal.
He's a Sargint."
"O, Si," said Annabel, her big blue eyes filling with grief; "I'm so
sorry."
"Why, Annabel," said Si, considerably abashed; "what's the matter? Don't
you understand. I'm promoted. Sergeant's higher than a Corporal."
"Is it really?" said Annabel, whose tears were beginning to come. "It
don't sound like it. Sargint don't sound near so big as Corporal. I
always thought that Corporal was the very purtiest title in the whole
army. None o' the rest o' them big names sounded half so nice. Whenever
I saw Corporal in the papers I always thought of you."
"Well, you must learn to like Sergeant just as well," said Si, fondly
squeezing her hand. "Maria, let her read the letter."
"Well, Mr. Gillmacfuddy does seem like a real nice, sociable sort of a
man, in spite of his name," she commented, as she finished. "And I like
him, because he seems to be such a good friend o' yours. I s'pose him
and you board together, and eat at the same table when you are in the
army, don't you?"
"O, no, we don't," said Si patiently, for her ignorance seemed
beautifully feminine, where Maria's was provoking. "You see, dear, he's
my Captain--commands about a hundred sich as me, and wears a sword
and shoulder-straps and other fine clothes, and orders me and the rest
around, and has his own tent, all by himself, and his servant to cook
for him, and we have to salute him, and do jest what he says, and not
talk back--at least, so he kin hear it, and jest lots o' things."
"Then I don't like him a bit," pouted Annabel. "He's a horrid, stuck-up
thing, and puts on airs. And he hain't got no business to put on airs
over you. Nobody's got any right to put on airs over you, for you're as
good as anybody alive."
Si saw that this task of making Annabel under stand the reason for
military rank was going to take some time, and could be better done when
they were by themselves, and he took her out by the kitchen-fire to make
the explanation.
For the very first time in his whole life Shorty had run away from
a crisis. With his genuine love of fighting, he rather welcomed any
awkward situation in which men were concerned. It was a challenge to
him, and he would carry himself through with a mixture of brass, bravado
and downright hard fighting. But he would have much more willingly faced
the concentrated fire of all the batteries in Bragg's army than Maria's
eyes as she raised them from that letter; and as for the comments of her
sharp tongue--well, far rather give him Longstreet's demons charging
out of the woods onto Snodgrass Hill. He walked out into the barn, and
leaned against the fanning-mill to think it all over. His ears burned
with the imagination of what Maria was saying. He was very uncomfortable
over what the rest of the family were thinking and saying, particularly
the view that dear old Mrs. Klegg might take. With the Deacon and Si it
was wholly different. He knew that, manlike, they averaged him up, one
day with another, and gave him the proper balance to his credit. But
Maria--there everything turned to gall, and he hated the very name of
Bad Ax, the whole State of Wisconsin and everybody in it. He would never
dare go back into the house and face the family. What could he do?
There was only one thing--get back to his own home, the army, as soon as
possible.
Little Sammy Woggles came out presently to get some wood. Shorty called
him to him. There was something fascinatingly mysterious in his tones
and actions to that youth, who devoured dime novels on the sly.
"Sammy," said Shorty, "I'm goin' away, right off, and I don't want the
people in the house to know nothin' of it. I want you to help me."
"You bet I will," responded the boy, with his eyes dancing. "Goin'
to run away? I'm goin to run away myself some day. I'm awful tired o'
havin' to git up in the mornin', wash my face and comb my hair, and do
the chores, and kneel down at family prayers, and go to Sunday, school,
and stay through church, and then have to spell out a chapter in the
Bible in the afternoon. I'm goin' to run away, and be a soldier, or go
out on the plains and kill Injuns. I'm layin' away things now for it.
See here?"
And he conducted Shorty with much mystery to a place behind the haymow,
where he had secreted an old single-barreled pistol and a falseface.
"You little brat," said Shorty, "git all them fool notions out o' your
head. This 's the best home you'll ever see, and you stay here just as
long as the Lord'll let you. You're playin' in high luck to be here.
Don't you ever leave, on no account."
"Then why're you goin' to run away," asked the boy wonderingly.
"That's my business. Something you can't understand, nohow. Now, I want
you to slip around there and git my overcoat and things and bring 'em
out to me, without nobody seein' you. Do it at once."
[Illustration: "SAMMY," SAID SHORTY, "I'M GOIN' AWAY RIGHT OFF, AND I
DON'T WANT THE PEOPLE TO KNOW NOTHIN' OF IT." 113]
While Sammy was gone for the things Shorty laboriously wrote out a note
to Si upon a sheet of brown paper. It read:
"Deer Si; ive jest red in the papers that the army's goin' 2
move rite off. i no tha need me bad in the kumpany, for tha
are short on Korprils, & tha can't do nothin' without
Korprils. ive jest time 2 ketch the nekst traine, & ime
goin' thare ez fast ez steme kin carry me. Good-by & luv 2
all the folks.
"Yours, Shorty."
"There, Sammy," he said, as he folded it up and gave it to the boy;
"keep that quiet until about bed time, when they begin to inquire about
me. By that time I'll 've ketched the train goin' east, and be skippin'
out for the army. By the way, Sammy, can't you sneak into Miss Maria's
room, and steal a piece o' ribbon, or something that belongs to her?"
"I've got a big piece o' that new red Sunday dress o' her's," said
Sammy, going to his storehouse and producing it. "I cribbed it once, to
make me a flag or something, when I'd be out fightin' the Injuns. Will
that do you?"
"Bully," said Shorty, with the first joyous emotion since the reception
of the letter. "It's jest the thing. Here's a half-dollar for you. Now,
Sammy, kin you write?"
"They're makin' me learn, and that's one reason why I want to run away,"
with a doleful remembrance of his own grievances. "What's the use of
it, I'd like to know? It cramps my fingers and makes my head ache. Simon
Kenton couldn't write his own name, but he killed more Injuns than ary
other man in the country. I guess you'd want to run away, too, if they
made you learn to write."
"You little brat," said Shorty reprovingly; "you don't know what's good
for you. You do as they say, and learn to write as quick as you kin."
Then, in a softer tone: "Now, Sammy, I want you to promise to write me a
long letter--two sheets o' foolscap."
"Why, I never writ so much in all my life," protested the boy. "It'd
take me a year."
"Well, you've got to, now, and it mustn't take you two weeks. Here's
a dollar for you, and when I git the letter I'll send you home a real
rebel gun. Now, you're to cross your heart and promise on your sacred
word and honor that you'll keep this secret from everybody, not to tell
a word to nobody. You must tell me all about what they say about me, and
partickerlerly what Miss Maria says. Tell me everything you kin about
Miss Maria, and who goes with her."
"What makes you like Maria better'n you do 'Mandy?" inquired the boy.
"I like 'Mandy lots the best. She's heap purtier, and lots more fun, and
don't boss me around like Maria does."
"That's all you know about it, you little skeezics. She don't boss you
around half as much as she ought to." Then gentler: "Now, Sammy, do jest
as I say, and I'll send you home a real rebel gun jest as soon as I get
your letter."
"A real gun, that'll be all my own, and will shoot and kick, and crack
loud?"
"Yes, a genuine rebel gun, that you kin shoot crows with and celebrate
Christmas, and kill a dog."
"Well, I'll write you a letter if it twists my fingers off," said the
boy joyously.
"And you hope to be struck dead if you tell a word to anybody?"
"Yes, indeedy," said the boy, crossing his heart earnestly. Shorty
folded up the piece of dress goods tenderly, placed it securely in the
breast-pocket of his blouse, and trudged over to the station, stopping
on the summit of the hill to take a last look at the house. It was a
long, hard walk for him, for he was yet far from strong, but he got
their before train time.
It was the through train to St. Louis that he boarded, and the only
vacant seat that he could find was one partially filled with the
belongings of a couple sitting facing it, and very close together. They
had hold of one another's hands, and quite clearly were dressed better
than they were accustomed to. The man was approaching middle age, and
wore a shiny silk hat, a suit of broadcloth, with a satin vest, and
a heavy silver watch chain. His face was rather strong and hard, and
showed exposure to rough weather. The woman was not so much younger, was
tall and angular, rather uncomfortably conscious of her good clothes,
and had a firm, settled look about her mouth and eyes, which only
partially disappeared in response to the man's persistent endearments.
Still, she seemed more annoyed than he did at the seating of another
party in front of them, whose eyes would be upon them. The man lifted
the things to make room for Shorty, who commented to himself:
"Should think they was bride and groom, if they wasn't so old."
There was a vague hint that he had seen the face somewhere, but he
dismissed it, then settled himself, and, busy with his own thoughts,
pressed his face against the window, and tried to recognize through the
darkness the objects by which they were rushing. They were all deeply
interesting to him, for they were part of Maria's home and surroundings.
After awhile the man appeared temporarily tired of billing and cooing,
and thought conversation with some one else would give variety to the
trip. He opened their lunch-basket, took out something for himself and
his companion to eat, nudged Shorty, and offered him a generous
handful. Shorty promptly accepted, for he had the perennial hunger of
convalescence, and his supper had been interrupted.
"Going back to the army?" inquired the man, with his mouth full of
chicken, and by way of opening up the conversation.
"Um--huh," said Shorty, nodding assent.
"Where do you belong?"
"200th Injianny Volunteer Infantry."
If Shorty had been noticing the woman he would have seen her start, but
would have attributed it to the lurching of the cars. She lost interest
in the chicken leg she was picking, and listened to the continuance of
the conversation.
"I mean, what army do you belong to?"
"Army o' the Cumberland, down at Chattanoogy."
"Indeed; I might say that I belong to that army myself. I'm going down
that way, too. You see, my Congressman helped me get a contract for
furnishing the Army o' the Cumberland with bridge timber, and I'm going
down to Looeyville, and mebbe further, to see about it. We've just come
from St. Louis, where I've bin deliverin' some timber in rafts."
"Where are you from?'
"Bad Ax, Wisconsin, a little ways from La Crosse."
It was Shorty's turn to start, and it flashed upon him just where he had
seen that squarish face. It was in an ambrotype that he carried in his
breastpocket. He almost choked on the merrythought of the chicken, but
recovered himself, and said quickly:
"I have heard o' the place. Lived there long?"
"Always, you might say. Father took me there as a child during the mine
excitement, growed up there, went into business, married, lost my wife,
and married again. We're now on what you might call our bridal tower. I
had to come down here on business, so I brung my wife along, and worked
it off on her as our bridal tower. Purty cute, don't you think?"
And he reached over and tried to squeeze his wife's hand, but she
repulsed it.
The bridegroom plied Shorty with questions as to the army for awhile
after they had finished eating, and then arose and remarked:
"I'm goin' into the smokin'-car for a smoke. Won't you come along with
me, soldier, and have a cigar?"
"No, thankee," answered Shorty. "I'd like to, awfully, but the doctor's
shut down on my smokin' till I git well."
As soon as he was well on his way the woman leaned forward and asked
Shorty in an earnest tone:
"Did you say that you belonged to the 200th Ind.?"
"Yes'm," said Shorty very meekly. "To Co. Q."
"The very same company," gasped the woman.
"Did you happen to know a Mr. Daniel Elliott in that company?"
"Very well, mum. Knowed him almost as well as if he was my own brother."
"What sort of a man was he?"
"Awful nice feller. I thought a heap of him. Thought more of him than
any other man in the company. A nicer man you never knowed. Didn't
drink, nor swear, nor play cards, nor chaw terbacker. Used to go to
church every Sunday. Chaplain thought a heap of him. Used to call him
his right bower--I mean his strong suit--I mean his two pair--ace
high. No, neither o' them's just the word the Chaplain used, but it was
something just as good, but more Bible-like."
"I'm so glad to hear it," murmured the woman.
"O, he was an ornament to the army," continued the unblushing Shorty,
who hadn't had a good opportunity to lie in all the weeks that the
Deacon had been with him, and wanted to exercise his old talent, to
see whether he had lost it. "And the handsomest man! There wasn't a
finer-looking man in the whole army. The Colonel used to get awfully
jealous o' him, because everybody that'd come into camp 'd mistake him
for the Colonel. He'd 'a' bin Colonel, too, if he'd only lived. But the
poor fellow broke his heart. He fell in love with a girl somewhere up
North--Pewter Hatchet, or some place like that. I never saw her, and
don't know nothin' about her, but I heard that the boys from her
place said that she was no match for him. She was only plain,
ordinary-lookin'."
"That wasn't true," said the woman, under her breath.
"All the same, Elliott was dead-stuck on her. Bimeby he heard some
way that some stay-at-home widower was settin' up to her, and she was
encouragin' him, and finally married him. When Elliott heard that he
was completely beside himself. He lost all appetite for everything but
whisky and the blood of widowers. Whenever he found a man who was a
widower he wanted to kill him. At Chickamauga, he'd pick out the men
that looked old enough to be widowers, and shoot at them, and no others.
In the last charge he got separated, and was by himself with a tall
rebel with a gray beard. 'I surrender,' said the rebel. 'Are you a
widower?' asked Elliott. 'I'm sorry to say that my wife's dead,' said
the rebel. 'Then you can't surrender. I'm goin' to kill you,' said
Elliott. But he'd bin throwed off his guard by too much talkin'. The
rebel got the drop on him, and killed him."
"It ain't true that his girl went back on him before she heard he was
killed," said the woman angrily, forgetting herself. "She only married
after the report of his death in the papers."
"Jerusha," said Shorty, pulling out the letters and picture, rising to
his feet, and assuming as well as he could in the rocking car the pose
and manner of the indignant lovers he had seen in melodramas, "I'm
Dan Elliott, and your own true love, whose heart you've broke. When I
learned of your faithlessness I sought death, but death went back on me.
I've come back from the grave to reproach you. You preferred the love of
a second-hand husband, with a silver watch-chain and a raft o' logs, to
that of an honest soldier who had no fortune but his patriotic heart
and his Springfield rifle. But I'll not be cruel to you. There are the
evidences of your faithlessness, that you was so anxious to git hold of.
Your secret's safe in this true heart. Take 'em and be happy with your
bridge-timber contractor. Be a lovin' wife to your warmed-over husband.
Be proud of his speculations on the needs o' his country. As for me,
I'll go agin to seek a soldier's grave, for I cannot forgit you."
As he handed her the letters and picture he was dismayed to notice that
the piece of Maria's dress was mixed in with them. He snatched it away,
shoved it back in his pocket, pulled his hat down over his eyes, and,
with a melodramatic air, rushed forward into the smoking-car, where he
seated himself and at once fell asleep.
He was awakened in the morning at Jeffersonville, by the provost-guard
shaking him and demanding his pass.