Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 28, 2025
Andrews opened the letter, as he replied kindly to the lad: "You look out of breath, George. Did you have a hard time reaching here?" "As Waggie and I were hurrying up the Shelbyville road in the darkness," returned George Knight, "we ran into a company of Confederate guerrillas. They paid us the compliment of firing at us and we had to run for our lives. But we gave the fellows the slip."
The thin Captain who sat next to him turned and curiously regarded Waggie, who was lying on his master's lap. He had shrewd gray eyes, had this Captain, and there was a week's growth of beard upon his weazened face. "Where did you get your dog from, lad?" he asked, giving Waggie a pat with one of his skeleton-like hands. It was a pat to which the little animal paid no attention.
Thereupon Waggie gave a growl. Andrews, who was about to read the letter from General Mitchell, assumed a listening attitude. So did every one else. Out on the highroad, not a hundred yards away, could be heard the tramping of horses. Involuntarily the men put their hands towards the pockets which contained their revolvers.
"You were in one of the forward cars, weren't you? Where's your dog? In your pocket, eh?" He turned around, shut the door, and went back into the car without waiting for an answer. "One danger is over," whispered George to himself. Then he began to pat Waggie. "You and I are having an exciting time of it, aren't we?" he laughed.
More than once I thought we were all done for." "I was pretty well scared when that rascal of a Waggie barked," observed George. The train was now gliding swiftly on past hills and woods and quiet pasture-lands. After the long delay the sensation of rapid motion was delightful. "By Jove!" cried Andrews, with a tinge of humor. "You must bring that rogue back with you into the engine.
The boy, coming up at that moment, and hearing the suggestion, smiled almost as broadly as the famous Cheshire cat. He longed to know that he was of some real use in the expedition. So Jenks retired to the baggage car, carrying with him, for a temporary companion, the struggling Waggie, who might be very much in George's way under the new arrangement of duties.
The next second the boy had shaken his overcoat, and from out of a large side pocket jumped the diminutive Waggie. The cat, with one bound, took a flying leap to the kitchen stairs, and brushing past the half-opened door at the bottom of the flight, fairly tore up to the second story, where she disappeared.
And I calculate I ain't a-going to risk my life, and the happiness of my wife and five children, by tryin' to stem the Tennessee in this turmoil." George's heart sank within him. To be so near the realization of his dream of adventure, and to be stopped at the eleventh hour by this stupid, cautious boatman! Waggie, who had been frisking near him, suddenly became solemn.
"Why, if it isn't George Knight," muttered one soldier, "and his chum, Waggie." The dog, hearing his own name, came up and fawned upon the man who had spoken, while the boy thrust into the hands of the leader the letter which he had so carefully guarded. "This is from General Mitchell," explained young Knight. "He said it was most urgent and I was to fetch it to you as soon as possible."
Waggie, too, was still in evidence, but he would have found life rather dreary had not the kind-hearted jailer allowed one of his family to take the dog many a scamper around the city. "Poor Andrews," said Watson, one afternoon, "it is hard to realize that he and seven others of us have gone." The party were occupying a well-barred room on the second floor of the prison.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking