It was now nearing the end of the
third year of the war. Hugh was seventeen, and
was eager to go into the army. His mother would
have liked to keep him at home; but she felt that
it was her duty not to withhold anything, and Colonel
Marshall offered Hugh a place with him. So a
horse was bought, and Hugh went to Richmond and came
back with a uniform and a sabre. The boys truly
thought that General Lee himself was not so imposing
or so great a soldier as Hugh. They followed him
about like two pet dogs, and when he sat down they
stood and gazed at him adoringly.
When Hugh rode away to the army it
was harder to part with him than they had expected;
and though he had left them his gun and dog, to console
them during his absence, it was difficult to keep from
crying. Everyone on the plantation was moved.
Uncle Balla, who up to the last moment had been very
lively attending to the horse, as the young soldier
galloped away sank down on the end of the steps of
the office, and, dropping his hands on his knees,
followed Hugh with his eyes until he disappeared over
the hill. The old driver said nothing, but his
face expressed a great deal.
The boys’ mother cried a great
deal, but it was generally when she was by herself.
“She’s afraid Hugh’ll
be kilt,” Willy said to Uncle Balla, in explanation
of her tears, the old servant having remarked
that he “b’lieved she cried more when
Hugh went away, than she did when Marse John and Marse
William both went.”
“Hi! warn’t she ’fred
they’ll be kilt, too?” he asked in some
scorn.
This was beyond Willy’s logic, so he pondered
over it.
“Yes, but she’s afraid
Hugh’ll be kilt, as well as them,”
he said finally, as the best solution of the problem.
It did not seem to wholly satisfy
Uncle Balla’s mind, for when he moved off he
said, as though talking to himself:
“She sutn’ey is ‘sot’
on that boy. He’ll be a gen’l hisself,
the first thing she know.”
There was a bond of sympathy between
Uncle Balla and his mistress which did not exist so
strongly between her and any of the other servants.
It was due perhaps to the fact that he was the companion
and friend of her boys.
That winter the place where the army
went into winter quarters was some distance from Oakland;
but the young officers used to ride over, from time
to time, two or three together, and stay for a day
or two.
Times were harder than they had been
before, but the young people were as gay as ever.
The colonel, who had been dreadfully
wounded in the summer, had been made a brigadier-general
for gallantry. Hugh had received a slight wound
in the same action. The General had written to
the boy’s mother about him; but he had not been
home. The General had gone back to his command.
He had never been to Oakland since he was wounded.
One evening, the boys had just teased
their Cousin Belle into reading them their nightly
portion of “The Talisman,” as they sat
before a bright lightwood fire, when two horsemen
galloped up to the gate, their horses splashed with
mud from fetlocks to ears. In a second, Lucy
Ann dashed headlong into the room, with her teeth gleaming:
“Here Marse Hugh, out here!”
There was a scamper to the door the
boys first, shouting at the tops of their voices,
Cousin Belle next, and Lucy Ann close at her heels.
“Who’s with him, Lucy
Ann?” asked Miss Belle, as they reached the
passage-way, and heard several voices outside.
“The Cunel’s with ’im.”
The young lady turned and fled up the steps as fast
as she could.
“You see I brought my welcome
with me,” said the General, addressing the boy’s
mother, and laying his hand on his young aide’s
shoulder, as they stood, a little later, “thawing
out” by the roaring log-fire in the sitting-room.
“You always bring that; but
you are doubly welcome for bringing this young soldier
back to me,” said she, putting her arm affectionately
around her son.
Just then the boys came rushing in
from taking the horses to the stable. They made
a dive toward the fire to warm their little chapped
hands.
“I told you Hugh warn’t
as tall as the General,” said Frank, across
the hearth to Willy.
“Who said he was?”
“You!”
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
They were a contradictory pair of
youngsters, and their voices, pitched in a youthful
treble, were apt in discussion to strike a somewhat
higher key; but it did not follow that they were in
an ill-humor merely because they contradicted each
other.
“What did you say, if you didn’t
say that?” insisted Frank.
“I said he looked as
if he thought himself as tall as the General,”
declared Willy, defiantly, oblivious in his excitement
of the eldest brother’s presence. There
was a general laugh at Hugh’s confusion; but
Hugh had carried an order across a field under a hot
fire, and had brought a regiment up in the nick of
time, riding by its colonel’s side in a charge
which had changed the issue of the fight, and had
a sabre wound in the arm to show for it. He could
therefore afford to pass over such an accusation with
a little tweak of Willy’s ear.
“Where’s Cousin Belle?” asked Frank.
“I s’peck she’s
putting on her fine clothes for the General to see.
Didn’t she run when she heard he was here!”
“Willy!” said his mother, reprovingly.
“Well, she did, Ma.”
His mother shook her head at him;
but the General put his hand on the boy, and drew
him closer.
“You say she ran?” he asked, with a pleasant
light in his eyes.
“Yes, sirree; she did that.”
Just then the door opened, and their Cousin Belle
entered the room.
She looked perfectly beautiful. The greetings
were very cordial to
Hugh especially. She threw her arms around his
neck, and kissed him.
“You young hero!” she
cried. “Oh, Hugh, I am so proud of you!” kissing
him again, and laughing at him, with her face glowing,
and her big brown eyes full of light. “Where
were you wounded? Oh! I was so frightened
when I heard about it!”
“Where was it? Show it
to us, Hugh; please do,” exclaimed both boys
at once, jumping around him, and pulling at his arm.
“Oh, Hugh, is it still very
painful?” asked his cousin, her pretty face
filled with sudden sympathy.
“Oh! no, it was nothing nothing
but a scratch,” said Hugh, shaking the boys
off, his expression being divided between feigned
indifference and sheepishness, at this praise in the
presence of his chief.
“No such thing, Miss Belle,”
put in the General, glad of the chance to secure her
commendation. “It might have been very serious,
and it was a splendid ride he made.”
“Were you not ashamed of yourself
to send him into such danger?” she said, turning
on him suddenly. “Why did you not go yourself?”
The young man laughed. Her beauty
entranced him. He had scars enough to justify
him in keeping silence under her pretended reproach.
“Well, you see, I couldn’t
leave the place where I was. I had to send some
one, and I knew Hugh would do it. He led the regiment
after the colonel and major fell and he
did it splendidly, too.”
There was a chorus from the young
lady and the boys together.
“Oh, Hugh, you hear what he
says!” exclaimed the former, turning to her
cousin. “Oh, I am so glad that he thinks
so!” Then, recollecting that she was paying
him the highest compliment, she suddenly began to
blush, and turned once more to him. “Well,
you talk as if you were surprised. Did you expect
anything else?”
There was a fine scorn in her voice,
if it had been real.
“Certainly not; you are all
too clever at making an attack,” he said coolly,
looking her in the eyes. “But I have heard
even of your running away,” he added,
with a twinkle in his eyes.
“When?” she asked quickly,
with a little guilty color deepening in her face as
she glanced at the boys. “I never did.”
“Oh, she did!” exclaimed
both boys in a breath, breaking in, now that the conversation
was within their range. “You ought to have
seen her. She just flew!” exclaimed
Frank.
The girl made a rush at the offender to stop him.
“He doesn’t know what
he is talking about,” she said, roguishly, over
her shoulder.
“Yes, he does,” called
the other. “She was standing at the foot
of the steps when you all came, and oo oo oo ”
the rest was lost as his cousin placed her hand close
over his mouth.
“Here! here! run away!
You are too dangerous. They don’t know what
they are talking about,” she said, throwing a
glance toward the young officer, who was keenly enjoying
her confusion. Her hand slipped from Willy’s
mouth and he went on. “And when she heard
it was you, she just clapped her hands and ran oo oo umm.”
“Here, Hugh, put them out,”
she said to that young man, who, glad to do her bidding,
seized both miscreants by their arms and carried them
out, closing the door after them.
Hugh bore the boys into the dining-room,
where he kept them, until supper-time.
After supper, the rest of the family
dispersed, and the boys’ mother invited them
to come with her and Hugh to her own room, though they
were eager to go and see the General, and were much
troubled lest he should think their mother was rude
in leaving him.