Page:War; or, What happens when one loves one's enemy, John Luther Long, 1913.djvu/34

WAR But I got Evelyn, who was a better scholar than I, to write back that we were all Union to the backbone and that we were nailing Maryland down so that she couldn't get out of the Union, and not to bother about wars nor rumors of war, but study hard, as he was too young, anyhow, to fight with anybody but me and I could lick him any day—also in fun.

Evelyn was kind of shy and distressed, and finally said:

"Daddy, dear, you oughtn't to ask me to write that."

"Why?" says I.

"Because I ain't Union to the backbone," says she.

"To be sure!" says I. "Not quite through. I forgot. You are most two yards of rebel up and down. They're the most dangerous—the lady rebels. I expect you'd like to be making funny flags and sticking them up on female colleges like they're doing in Dixie. The women's terrible fighters!"

I laughed, but Evelyn cried. It was hard for 18