The newcomer looked them over sharply and inquired:
"Who are these men, Mrs. Bolster?"
"They"uns "s all right. They"uns "s had enough o" Abolition doin"s, and hev come over whar they"uns allers rayly belonged. This one is a partickler friend o" mine," and she leered at Shorty in a way that made his blood run cold.
"Hain"t yo" time t" stop a minute, "Squire?" she asked appealingly, as the newcomer turned his horse"s head to renew his journey.{200}
"Not now; not now," answered the "Squire, digging his heels into his steed"s side. "I want to talk t" yo" and these "ere men "bout what"s gwine on in the Lincoln camps, but I must hurry on now to meet Capt.
Solomon at the Winding Blades. I"ll come over to your house this evening," he called back.
"Don"t fail, "Squire," she answered, "fur I"ve got a little job for yo", an" I want hit partickerly done this very evenin". Hit can"t wait."
"I"ll be there without fail," he a.s.sured her.
"Capt. Solomon"s the man what sent the letter to you," she explained, which somewhat raised Shorty"s depressed heart, for he began to have hopes that Rosenbaum might rescue him if Capt. McGillicuddy should be behind time.
As they jogged onward farther from camp Mrs. Bolster"s saturnine earnestness began to be succeeded by what were intended to be demonstrations of playful affection for her future husband, whom she now began to regard as securely hers. She would draw Shorty into the path a little ahead of Si, and walk alongside of him, pinching his arm and jabbering incoherent words which were meant for terms of endearment.
When the narrowness of the road made them walk in single file she would come up from time to time alongside with cuffs intended for playful love-taps.
At each of these Shorty would cast such a look of wretchedness at Si that the latter had difficulty in preserving his steadfast silence and rigidity of countenance.
But the woman"s chief affection seemed to be called forth by the package of coffee. She would{201} stop in the midst of any demonstration to pull out the bag containing the fragrant berry, and lovingly inhale its odor.
It was long past noon when she announced: "Thar"s my house right ahead."
She followed this up with a ringing whoopee, which made the tumbledown cabin suddenly swarm with animation. A legion of loud-mouthed dogs charged down toward the road. Children of various ages, but of no variety in their rags and unkempt wildness, followed the dogs, or perched upon the fence-corners and stumps, and three or four shambling, evil-faced mountaineers lunged forward, guns in hand, with eyes fiercer than the dogs, as they looked over the two armed soldiers.
"They"uns is all right, boys," exclaimed the woman. "They"uns "s plum sick o" d.o.g.g.i.n" hit for Abe Lincoln an" quit."
"Let "em gin up thar guns, then," said the foremost man, who had but one eye, reaching for Shorty"s musket. "I"ll take this one. I"ve been longin" for a good Yankee gun for a plum month to reach them Yankee pickets on Duck River."
Though Shorty and Si had schooled themselves in the part they were to play, the repugnant thought of giving up their arms to the rebels threatened to overset everything. Instinctively they threw up their guns to knock over the impudent guerrillas. The woman strode between them and the others, and caught hold of their muskets.
"Don"t be fools. Let "em have your guns," she said, and she caught Si"s with such quick unexpectedness that she wrenched it from his grasp and flung{202} it to the man who wanted Shorty"s. She threw one arm around Shorty"s neck, with a hug so muscular that his breath failed, and she wrenched his gun away. She kept this in her hand, however.
"Now, I want these "ere men treated right," she announced to the others, "and I"m a-gwine to have "em treated right, or I"ll bust somebody"s skillet. They"uns is my takings, and I"m a-gwine to have all the say "bout "em. I"ve never interfered with any Yankees any o" yo"uns have brung in. Yo"ve done with them as you pleased, an" I"m a-gwine to do with these jest as I please, and yo"uns that don"t like hit kin jest lump hit, that"s all."
[Ill.u.s.tration: TAKE YOUR ARM FROM AROUND THAT YANK"S NECK 203]
""Frony Bolster, I want yo" to take yo"r arms from around that Yank"s neck," said the man who had tried to take Shorty"s gun. "I won"t "low yo" to put yo"r arm "round another man"s neck as long"s I"m alive to stop it."
"Ye won"t, Jeff Hackberry," she sneered. "Jealous, air ye? You"ve got no bizniss o" bein". Done tole ye "long ago I"d never marry yo", so long as I could find a man who has two good eyes and a "spectable character.
I"ve done found him. Here he is, and "Squire Corson "ll splice us to-night."
How much of each of the emotions of jealousy, disappointment, hurt vanity, and rebel antagonism went into the howl that Mr. Jeff Hackberry set up at this announcement will never be known. He made a rush with clenched fists at Shorty.
A better description could be given of the operations of the center of a tornado than of the events of the next few minutes. Shorty and Hackberry grappled fiercely. Mrs. Bolster mixed in to stop the fight and save Shorty. Si and the other three rebels flung themselves into the whirlpool of strikes, kicks, and grapples. The delighted children came rushing in, and eagerly joined the fray, striking with charming impartiality at every opportunity to get a lick in anywhere on anybody; and finally the legion of dogs, to whom such scenes seemed familiar and gladsome, rushed in with an ear-splitting clamor, and jumped and bit at the arms and legs that went flying around.{204 }
This was too violent to last long. Everybody and everything had to stop from sheer exhaustion. But when the stop came Mrs. Bolster was sitting on the prostrate form of Jeff Hackberry. The others were disentangling themselves from one another, the children and the dogs, and apparently trying to get themselves into relation with the points of the compa.s.s and understand what had been happening.
"Have yo" had enough, Jeff Hackberry," inquired Mrs. Bolster, "or will yo" obleege me to gouge yer other eye out afore yo" come to yer senses?"
"Le" me up, "Frony," pleaded the man, "an" then we kin talk this thing over."
CHAPTER XV. SHORTY NEARLY GOT MARRIED
BREAKING UP A BAD REBEL NEST IS NO PICNIC.
WHEN physical exhaustion called a halt in the fracas, Mrs. Bolster was seated on Jeff Hackberry"s breast with her sinewy hands clutching his long hair, and her thumb, with a cruel, long nail, pressing the ball of his one good eye. Shorty was holding down one of the guerrillas who had tried to climb on his back when he was grappling with Hackberry. Si had knocked one guerrilla senseless with his gun-barrel, and now came to a breathless standstill in a struggle with another for the possession of his gun. The children and dogs had broken up into several smaller stormcenters, in each of which a vicious fight was going on. In some it was dog and dog; in some child and child, and in others dogs and children mixed.
Then they all halted to observe the outcome of the discussion between Mrs. Bolster and Jeff Hackberry.
"Holler "nuff, Jeff, or out goes yer last light," commanded Mrs.
Bolster, emphasizing her words by rising a little, and then settling down on Jeff"s breast with a force that drove near every spoonful of breath out of him.
""Frony, le" me up," he begged in gasps.{206}
"Mrs. Bolster," she reminded him, with another jounce upon his chest.
"Mrs. Bolster, le" me up. I"d "a" got away with that "ere Yank ef ye"
hedn"t tripped me with them long legs o" your"n."
"I"m right smart on the trip, aint I," she grinned. "I never seed a man yit that I couldn"t throw in any sort of a rastle."
"Le" me up, Mrs. Bolster, an le"s begin over agin, an" yo" keep out,"
begged Hackberry.
"Not much I won"t. I ain"t that kind of a chicken," she a.s.serted with another jounce. "When I down a man I down him fer good, an" he never gits up agin "till he caves entirely. If I let yo" up, will yo" swar to quite down peaceable as a lamb, an" make the rest do the same?"
"Never," a.s.serted Hackberry. "I"m ergwine to have it out with that Yank."
"No you haint," she replied with a still more emphatic jounce that made Hackberry use all the breath left him to groan.
"I"ll quit," he said, with his next instalment of atmosphere.
"Will yo" agree t" let me marry this Yank, an" t" give me away as my oldest friend, nearest o" kin, an" best man?" she inquired, rising sufficiently to let him take in a full breath and give a free, unforced answer.
"Nary a time," he shrieked. "I"ll die fust, afore I"ll "low yo" t" marry ary other man but me."
"Then you"ll lose yor blinker, yo" pigheaded, likker-guzzling", ornery, no-account sand-hill crane," she said, viciously coming down on his chest with{207} her full weight and sticking the point of hei nail against his eye. "I wouldn"t marry yo" if ye wuz the last nubbin" in the Lord A"mighty"s crib, and thar"d never be another c.r.a.p o" men. Ye"ll never git no chance to make me yer slave, and beat me and starve me t"
death as yo" did Nance Brill. I ain"t gwine t" fool with yer pervarsity nary a minnit longer. Say this instant whether yo"ll do as I say with a freewill and good heart, or out goes yer peeper." "I promise," groaned Jeff.{208 }
"Yo" sw"ar hit?" she demanded.
"Yes, I sw"ar hit," answered Jeff.
Mrs. Bolster rose, and confirmed the contract by giving him a kick in the side with her heavy brogan.