Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 12, 2025
The mountaineer left the shadow of the fence corner and slowly dragged himself into the little glow, where he sat puffing at his corncob pipe. He gave an easy, sociable nod and stared silently at the embers. "Was it just what you imagined it would be?" went on Dan, curiously. Pinetop took his pipe from his mouth and nodded again. "Wall, 'twas and 'twan't," he answered pleasantly.
There were tears on all the faces round him, and Pinetop was digging his great fists into his eyes, as a child does who has been punished before his playmates. Beside him a man with an untrimmed shaggy beard hid his distorted features in shaking hands. "I ain't blubberin' fur myself," he said defiantly, "but O Lord, boys I'm cryin' fur Marse Robert."
"The big book" was a garbled version of "Les Miserables," which, after running the blockade with a daring English sailor, had passed from regiment to regiment in the resting army. At first Dan had begun to read with only Pinetop for a listener, but gradually, as the tale unfolded, a group of eager privates filled the little hut and even hung breathlessly about the doorway in the winter nights.
The two had become close friends during the dull weeks after their first battle, and Bland, who had brought a taste for the classics from the lecture-room, had already referred to them in pointless jokes as "Pylades and Orestes." "It looks mighty like summer," responded Pinetop cheerfully.
A group of Federal cavalrymen, drawn up beneath a persimmon tree, uncovered as he went by, and he returned the salute with a simple gesture. Lonely, patient, confirmed in courtesy, he passed on his way, and his little army returned to camp in the strip of pines. "'I've done my best for you, that's what he said," sobbed Pinetop. "'I've done my best for you, and I kissed old Traveller's mane."
"That's beginning to look comfortable. I hope to heaven the wagons aren't far off." Pinetop turned and glanced back into the valley. "I'll be blessed if I believe they're anywhere," was his answer. "Well, if they aren't, I'll be somewhere before morning; why, it feels like snow." A gust of wind, sharp as a blade, struck from the gray sky, and whirlpools of dead leaves were swept into the forest.
Dan ate it to the last morsel and licked the warm juice from his fingers. "You lied, Pinetop," he said, "but, by God, you saved my life. What place is this, I wonder. Isn't there any hope of our cutting through Grant's lines to-day?" Pinetop glanced about him. "Somebody said we were comin' on to Sailor's Creek," he answered, "and it's about as God-forsaken country as I care to see.
We had a jolly dinner that day, and Pinetop and I put on our first clean clothes for three months. Big Abel got a linsey suit made at Chericoke I hope he'll come along in it." "Oh, Beau, Beau!" lamented Champe. "How have the mighty fallen? You aren't so particular now about wearing only white or black ties, I reckon."
At that instant he knew that he loved every man in the regiment beside him loved the affectionate Colonel, with the sleepy voice, loved Pinetop, loved the lieutenant whose nose he had broken after drill. At a word he had leaped, with the others, to his feet, and stood drawn up for battle against the wood.
He twined the silk more closely about his arm, gloating over his treasure in the twilight. Pinetop stretched out his great rough hand and touched the flag as gently as if it were a woman. "I've fought under this here thing goin' on four years now," he said, "and I reckon when they take it prisoner, they take me along with it."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking