Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/21

Rh Vermont than down here in Virginny fightin' the rebs for eighteen dollars a month, but when Uncle Abe called for seventy-five thousand men I could n't a-kep' them bees another day, not if I had been makin' two hundred dollars a month at it. When I heard 'bout it, I kem in, and I said to the old woman: 'I've got a call,' and she screeched out, 'A call to git converted, Silas?'—the old woman's powerful religious,—and I says, 'No, Sary—a call to go and fight for the Flag.' And when we talked it over, and remembered about my grandfather,—he lived to be selectman,—the old woman says, 'Silas, you are a miser'bul man, and you'll git killed in your sins, and no insurance on your life, and it 'll take all I kin rake and scrape to bring your body home, but mebbe it's your duty to fight for your country.' And she said I might come, and here I am, and the bees is goin' to thunder."

"Unfortunately for me, sir," said the Colonel, with a faint smile, but with unabated politeness. "However, I wish to say that you are pursuing your humble but unpleasant duty in a most gentlemanlike manner. For, look you, the term gentleman is comprehensive. It includes not only a man who has had the ad-