I call that
soldiering, don't you? Anyhow, Old Put thought it was, and sent
for him 'fore daylight, and made a sergeant of him. If I had as
good a chance of gettin' rid of the rheumatiz as he has of bein'
captain in six months, I'd thank the Lord."
Susie sat up very straight, and tried to look severely judicial;
but her lip was quivering and her whole plump little form
trembling with excitement and emotion. Suddenly she dropped her
face in her hands and cried in a gust of tears and laughter: "He's
just like grandfather; he'd face anything!"
"Anything in the 'tarnal universe, I guess, 'cept you, Miss Susie.
I seed a cannon-ball smash a shovel in his hands, and he got
another, and went on with his work cool as a cucumber. Then I seed
him writin' a letter to you, and his hand trembled---"
"A letter to me!" cried the girl, springing up.
"Yes; 'ere it is. I was kind of pegging around till I got to that;
and you know---"
But Susie was reading, her hands trembling so she could scarcely
hold the paper. "It's about you," she faltered, making one more
desperate effort at self-preservation.
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