Toward morning Shorty grew quite weak, and correspondingly depressed.
"Si," said he, "I may not git over this. This may be the breakin" out o"
the cholera that the folks around here say comes every seven years and kills off the strangers. Si, I"ll tell you a secret. A letter may come for me. If I don"t git over this, and the letter comes, I want you to burn it up without reading it, and write a letter to Miss Jerusha Ellen Briggs, Bad Ax, Wis., tellin" her that I died like a man and soldier, and with her socks on, defendin" his country."
Si whistled softly to himself. "I"ll do it. Shorty," he said, and repeated the address to make sure.
The crisis soon pa.s.sed, however, and the morning found Shorty bright and cheerful, though weak.
Si was puzzled how to get the whisky to Shorty. It would never do to let him know that he had gotten it especially for him. That would have been so contrary to Si"s past as to arouse suspicion. He finally decided to lay it where it would seem that someone pa.s.sing had dropped it, and Shorty could not help finding it. The plan worked all right. Shorty picked it up in a few minutes after Si had deposited it, and made quite an ado over his treasure trove.
"Splendid applejack," he said, tasting it; "little bitter, but that probably comes from their using{157} dogwood in the fires when they"re "stilhn". They know that dogwood"ll make the liquor bitter, but they"re too all-fired lazy to go after any other kind o" wood." He drank, and as he drank his spirits rose. After the first dram he thought he would clean around the tent, and make their grounds look neater than anybody else"s. After the second he turned his attention to his arms and accouterments. After the third he felt like going out on a scout and finding some rebels to vary the monotony of the camp-life. After the fourth, "Groundhog," unluckily for himself, came along, and Shorty remembered that he had long owed the teamster a licking, and he felt that the debt should not be allowed to run any longer. He ordered Groundhog to halt and receive his dues. The teamster demurred, but Shorty was obdurate, and began preparations to put his intention into operation, when the Orderly-Sergeant came down through the company street distributing mail.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHORTY WANTS TO FIGHT GROUNDHOG 157]
"Shorty," he said, entirely ignoring the bellicosity of the scene, "here"s a letter for you."
Shorty"s first thought was to look at the postmark. Sure enough, it was Bad Ax, Wis. Instantly his whole demeanor changed. Here was something a hundred times more important than licking any teamster that ever lived.
"Git out, you scab," he said contemptuously. "I haint no time to fool with you now. You"ll keep. This won"t."
Groundhog mistook the cause of his escape. "O, you"re powerful anxious to fight, ain"t you, till you find I"m ready for you, and then you quiet down. I"ll let you know, sir, that you mustn"t give me no more o" your sa.s.s. I won"t stand it from you. You jest keep your mouth shet after this, if you know when you"re well off."
The temptation would have been irresistible to Shorty at any other time, but now he must go off somewhere where he could be alone with his letter, and to the amazement of all the spectators he made no reply to the teamster"s gibes, but holding the{159} precious envelope firmly in his hand, strode off to the seclusion of a neighboring laurel thicket.
His first thought, as he sat down and looked the envelope over again, was shame that it had come to him when he was under the influence of drink. He remembered the writer"s fervent Christianity, and it seemed to him that it would be a gross breach of faith for him to open and read the letter while the fumes of whisky were on his breath. He had a struggle with his burning desire to see the inside of the envelope, but he conquered, and put the letter back in his pocket until he was thoroughly sober.
But he knew not what to do to fill up the time till he could conscientiously open the letter. He thought of going back and fulfilling his long-delayed purpose of thrashing Groundhog, but on reflection this scarcely commended itself as a fitting prelude.
He heard voices approaching--one sympathetic and encouraging, the other weak, pain-breathing, almost despairing. He looked out and saw the Chaplain helping back to the hospital a sick man who had over-estimated his strength and tried to reach his company. The man sat down on a rock, in utter exhaustion.
Shorty thrust the letter back into his blousepocket, sprang forward, picked the man up in his strong arms, and carried him bodily to the hospital. It taxed his strength to the utmost, but it sobered him and cleared his brain.
He returned to his covert, took out his letter, and again scanned its exterior carefully. He actually feared to open it, but at last drew his knife and carefully slit one side. He unfolded the inclosure as{160} carefully as if it had been a rare flower, and with palpitating heart slowly spelled out the words, one after another:
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHORTY READING THE LETTER 160]
"Bad Ax, Wisconsin,
"April the Twenty-First, 1863.
"Mister Daniel Elliott, Company Q, 200th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
"Respected Sir: I taik my pen in hand toe inform you that I am wel, and hoap that you aire in joying{161} the saim blessing. For this, G.o.d be prazed and magnified forever."
"Goodness, how religious she is," said he, stopping to ruminate. "How much nicer it makes a woman to be pious. It don"t hurt a man much to be a cuss--at least while he"s young--but I want a woman to be awfully religious. It sets her off more"n anything else."
He continued his spelling exercise:
"I am verry glad that my sox reached you all rite, that they fell into the hands of a braiv, pious Union soldier, and he found them nice."
"Brave, pious Union soldier," he repeated to himself, with a whistle.
"Jewhilikins, I"m glad Bad Ax, Wis., is so fur away that she never heard me makin" remarks when a mule-team"s stalled. But I must git a brace on myself, and clean up my langwidge for inspection-day."
He resumed the spelling:
"I done the best I could on them, and moren that no one can do. Wimmen cant fite in this cruel war, but they ought all to do what they can. I only wish I could do more. But the wimmen must stay at home and watch and wait, while the men go to the front."
"That"s all right. Miss Jerusha Ellen Briggs," said he, with more satisfaction. "You jest stay at home and watch and wait, and I"ll try to do fightin" enough for both of us. I"ll put in some extra licks in future on your account, and they won"t miss you from the front."
The next paragraph read:
"I should like to hear more of you and your{162} regiment.
The only time I ever beared of the 200th Indiana regiment was in a letter writ home by one of our Wisconsin boys and published in the Bad Ax Grindstone, in which he said they wuz brigaded with the 200th Indiana, a good fighting regiment, but which would stele even the shoes off the brigade mules if they wuzzent watched, and sumtimes when they wuz. Ime sorry to hear that any Union soldier is a thief. I know that our boys from Wisconsin would rather die than stele."
"Steal! The 200th Injianny steal!" Shorty flamed out in a rage. "Them flabbergasted, knock-kneed, wall-eyed Wisconsin whelps writin" home that the Injiannians are thieves! The idee o" them longhaired, splay-footed lumbermen, them chuckleheaded, wap-sided, white-pine butchers talking about anybody else"s honesty. Why, they wuz born stealin". They never knowed anything else. They"d steal the salt out o" your hardtack. They"d steal the lids off the Bible. They talk about the 200th Injiannny! I"d like to find the liar that writ that letter. I"d literally pound the head offen him."
It was some time before he could calm himself down sufficiently to continue his literary exercise. Then he made out:
"Spring"s lait here, but things is looking very well. Wheat wintered good, and a big crop is expected. We had a fine singing-school during the Winter, but the protracted meeting drawed off a good many. We doant complain, however, for the revival brought a great many into the fold. No moar at present, but belave me
"Sincerly Your Friend,
"Jerusha Ellen Briggs."{163}
Shorty"s heart almost choked him when he finished. It was the first time in his hfe that he had received a letter from any woman. It was the first time since his mother"s days that any woman had shown the slightest interest in his personality. And, true man like, his impulses were to exalt this particular woman into something above the mere mortal.
Then came a hot flush of indignation that the Wisconsin men should malign his regiment, which, of course, included him, to the mind of such a being. He burned to go over and thrash the first Wisconsin man he should meet.
"Call us thieves; say we"ll steal," he muttered, as he walked toward the Wisconsin camp. "I"ll learn "em different."
He did not see anybody in the camp that he could properly administer this needed lesson to. All the vigorous, able-bodied members seemed to be out on drill or some other duty, leaving only a few sick moping around the tents.
Shorty"s attention was called to a spade lying temptingly behind one of the tents. He and Si had badly wanted a spade for several days. Here was an opportunity to acquire one. Shorty sauntered carelessly around to the rear of the tent, looked about to see that no one was observing, picked up the implement and walked off with it with that easy, innocent air that no one could a.s.sume with more success than he when on a predatory expedition.
CHAPTER XII. THE BAN ON WET GOODS
SI HAS A HARD TIME TRYING TO KEEP WHISKY OUT OF CAMP.
"DETAIL for guard to-morrow," sang out the Orderly-Sergeant, after he had finished the evening roll-call: "Bailey, Belcher, Doolittle, Elliott, Fracker, Gleason, Hendricks, Hummerson. Long, Mansur, Nolan, Thompson."
"Corp"l Klegg, you will act as Sergeant of the Guard.
"Dan Elliott will act as Corporal of the Guard." It is one of the peculiarities of men that the less they have to do the less they want to do. The boys of Co. Q were no different from the rest. When they were in active service a more lively, energetic crowd could not be found in the army. They would march from daybreak till midnight, and build roads, dig ditches, and chop trees on the way. They were ready and willing for any service, and none were louder than they in their condemnation when they thought that the officers did not order done what should be. But when lying around camp, with absolutely nothing to do but ordinary routine, they developed into the laziest mortals that breathed. To do a turn of guard duty was a heart-breaking affliction, and the Orderly-Sergeant"s announcement of those who were detailed for the morrow brought forth a yell of protest from every man whose name was called.{165}