Page:The woman in battle .djvu/179

Rh sought our beds. It was not long before I was sound asleep, and so worn out with my exertions of the night, that I did not wake up until nearly supper-time.

The next evening we went to a quilting-party, I acting as escort to an old maid who had been compelled to play the part of a wall-flower nearly all the night before, and to whom I determined to pay particular attention, just for the sake of a joke, and to annoy the younger girls, who showed a marked disposition to monopolize all the masculine attentions at her expense. It was very funny to note the dismay which this choice of mine caused in the breasts of those who thought they had a better right to my courtesies. I had the satisfaction of seeing, however, that my politeness was keenly appreciated by the recipient of it, and I redoubled my exertions to make myself agreeable when I noticed the chagrin my conduct was exciting among the rivals of my lady.

As for the lady herself, she had evidently not received so much marked attention from anybody in masculine garb for a long time, and she plumed herself immensely on having made a conquest of the dashing little lieutenant, and was, doubtless, inspired by a higher appreciation of her own powers of fascination than she had ever been before. Repeated attempts were made to win me away from her side, but all in vain; the sport was too entertaining for me to give it up, and I steadfastly resisted all the allurements of the rival beauties, with not a little enjoyment of their discomfiture. The quilting-party was a very merry and very noisy one, although the fun was not of quite so uproarious a character as that of the previous night. I offered to take a hand at the work that was going on, making a great boast of my skill with the needle. The probabilities are that I could have manipulated that little feminine instrument quite as deftly as most of those present, but did not think it expedient to show myself too handy with it. Taking my place at the frame, therefore, I set about making a figure with something of masculine awkwardness, and succeeded in putting in quite as shocking a bit of work as most men would have done under the circumstances.

While I was doing this, the girls all looked on with great eagerness, praising my work, and endeavoring to flatter me