A Daughter of the Union Part 26
"There!" said the Colonel, as the girls kissed. "That's better. Leave it to the men to settle the differences of the country. It is not pleasant to see girls quarrel. Introduce the little lady to me, Bob."
"Jeanne, this is my father, Colonel Peyton," said Bob. "Dad, this is Jeanne Vance, from New York city. And she is a brave girl, if she is a Yankee. You must get her to tell you all about her adventures."
"I am sure that I shall be pleased to hear them," said the Colonel, affecting not to notice Jeanne's start of surprise as she heard his name.
"Do you girls know that it is breakfast time?"
"Mercy!" cried Bob. "Have the drums beaten the call? I did not hear them.
Did you ever! We've been two hours talking and--quarreling," she added, in a lower tone.
"Yes; there was a time when I thought that it would be coffee and pistols for two," laughed the father. "Come, let us have breakfast. I will hear the little lady's story while we eat."
Jeanne looked about her with curious eyes as they emerged from the tent.
Everywhere there were tents that were arranged with military precision back of a parade-ground which formed the front. First were the tents of the men arranged by companies. Next after the tents of the men came those of the commissioned officers of the companies. These faced on streets which ran at right angles with the company streets. Still back of these were the tents of the Colonel and his staff. The flag-staff at the edge of the parade-ground, and immediately in front of the Colonel's tent, sported a Confederate flag that waved gaily in the breeze. In the rear of all were found the Quartermaster's and Sutler's departments. d.i.c.k had often written about the soldiers doing their own cooking but here the camp seemed filled with negroes who bustled about cooking and waiting upon the soldiers as if they had been in their own dining-rooms.
"We are here awaiting orders," said the Colonel, when Jeanne had told him her story, "but we expect to leave soon for Jackson. There are a number of Federals in that vicinity. It seems to me that your best plan would be to remain with us until we reach Jackson where I will try to get you to your own side. They will a.s.sist you to get home. That is where you ought to be."
"And where I wish to be," said Jeanne. "You are very kind, Colonel Peyton.
Kinder than my own people were, and yet you know that I am a Yankee."
"I am treating you as I would wish my own daughter treated under like circ.u.mstances," replied the Colonel gravely. "I don't war on girls, and it seems to me that you have had rather a hard time of it. Well, we'll get you out of it as soon as possible unless you and Bob destroy each other in your quarrels." And he looked at them with a humorous twinkle in his eye.
"We won't quarrel any more," decided Bob. "We have had our say and we feel better. Don't we, Jeanne?"
"Ye-es," said Jeanne hesitatingly. "Only I didn't say all I wanted to."
"Never mind," laughed Colonel Peyton. "I've no doubt but that you will have the opportunity yet. Did Bob tell you how she came to be with me?"
"No; how was it?"
"I ran away," said Bob, her mouth full of chicken. "I have no mother.
n.o.body but dad. So when the war broke out, and he went into it I made up my mind that I would go too. Dad sold off our darkies and sent me to stay with Aunt Betty in Mobile. I stood it just as long as I could, then I took Jack, my horse, and struck out for dad. I found him finally, and now I've been with him for six months. And I am going to stay too. Am I not, dad?"
"Until we get to Jackson," answered her father, regarding her fondly.
"Then I shall send you on to Vicksburg to stay with sister Sally. That is the safest place in the Confederacy. Once there my mind will be easy about you. A camp is no place for a girl."
The breakfast was finished and Colonel Peyton was about to leave them when he turned to Bob abruptly.
"By the way," he said, "wasn't it Mr. Vance who bought s...o...b..ll?"
"Yes; it was, dad. I wonder how Madame treats her! It seems to me that I've heard some awful stories about the way she uses her darkies."
"When she whips them she does whip dreadfully," said Jeanne. "But I only know of once that she had s...o...b..ll whipped. And you are the Colonel Peyton who bought her?" Then she told them of Tenny, s...o...b..ll's mother.
"That was why you started when you heard my name, was it not?" asked the Colonel.
"Yes, sir."
"I wondered just a little at the cause of it," remarked the officer as he left them. "Now, girls, be good."
"I don't want to go to Vicksburg a bit," confided Bob to Jeanne as they reentered the former's tent. "I just love soldiering. Besides I want to be near dad. Suppose he should be wounded. He'd die if I was not right there to look after him. I'm not going to say anything, but it will take a regular guard to keep me with Aunt Sally."
"But if he wishes it," said Jeanne to whom her father's lightest wish was law. "You will have to stay then. He knows best."
"It won't be best for me to be away from him," said Bob, rebelliously.
"I should imagine all sorts of things were happening to him."
"Everybody who has a father or a brother in the army does that," said Jeanne sadly as she thought of d.i.c.k. "But we have to stand it, Bob, when the men and the boys will go to the war. I could not if I didn't think it was right. If d.i.c.k should be killed----" her voice faltered a little--"it would be a n.o.ble death. Admiral Farragut said that there was no n.o.bler one than to die for one's country, and I should try not to grieve too much if he were to fall doing his duty."
"I do wish you were a Southerner," said Bob impulsively. "You feel just like we do about those things. But, Jeanne, what if your brother had thought that we were right and had gone to our side? What would you do then?"
"d.i.c.k couldn't do that," cried Jeanne. "Why the place where he was born and the way he was brought up would be against it. No; d.i.c.k couldn't be a rebel."
"That's what I thought about Frank," said Bob, with bitterness. "That's one reason that I stick so close to dad. I have, or rather had, a brother too, Jeanne. But he broke dad's heart and mine by going to fight with the Yankees. Yet his place of birth and his raising were both against it. I will never forgive him," and the tears rolled down her cheeks. "And dad never will either."
"But he is your brother," said Jeanne, pressing her hand. "If he thinks he is right, even if he does differ with you, he is still your brother."
"Never," cried Bob, dashing the tears from her eyes. "I have no brother.
Come, let's go to see the men drill."
CHAPTER XX
THE ARREST OF A SPY
Jeanne soon accustomed herself to the life of the camp, but she did not grow fond of it as Bob was. By her gentle way and pleasant manners she became quite a favorite with Colonel Peyton, but Bob reigned supreme in the hearts of the men. She petted and scolded them as if they were her brothers, and Jeanne wondered when she saw how the strong men submitted to her least command. But the secret lay in the fact that the Southern girl adored the soldiers and they knew it.
"It's the smartest regiment in the whole Confederacy," declared Bob with shining eyes to Jeanne one day. "I don't believe that there is another like it in the world."
"d.i.c.k's regiment is very gallant," said Jeanne, a trifle wistfully. "It has been complimented publicly on account of its bravery."
"Well, it can't beat the 'Die No Mores,'" said Bob. "The boys have been specially good this week. Dad said last night that not a man had been under arrest for five days. I always sing to them when that happens."
"Do you sing, Bob?"
"Yes; I have quite a good voice," said Bob in such a matter-of-fact way that the other girl smiled. "Do you?"
"A little," acknowledged Jeanne. "Father used to like to hear me."
"Then we will give the boys a good time to-night. They like singing and dad thinks it helps to keep them cheerful. They often sing themselves."
"I have heard them in the evening, and I like it when they do not sing rebel songs," said honest Jeanne.
"Well, you can hardly expect them to sing any other, can you?" demanded Bob. "I don't suppose that you do like it. I shouldn't want to hear the Federal songs if I were in one of their camps. But the spirits of the men must be kept up for we expect to meet the enemy soon."
"Do you?" cried Jeanne. "Oh, Bob, do you think that I could go to my side?"