talk so when Rodney is
on the eve of enlisting? You surely do not wish to discourage him?"

"By no means. I only want to make him see, before he swears away his
liberty for the next twelve months, that he is not going on a Fourth of
July picnic. If he knows what is before him, he will not be surprised or
disheartened when the hard times come."

"I know a little something about soldiering, and you need have no fears
that anything father can say will discourage me," Rodney said to his
mother. "I have passed my word, and consider myself as good as enlisted
already. Who commands that company of cavalry?"

"Bob Hubbard is the one who is getting it up, but there isn't any real
commander yet. The boys do just about as they please, and will keep on
doing so until the officers are elected, which will be when they have
eighty men enrolled. Bob says that if they elect him captain, and I
reckon he stands as good a chance as anybody, the boys will have to come
down to Limerick and quit leaving camp and staying in town over night
whenever the notion takes them."

"Have they seen any service at all?" asked Rodney.

"None except what some of them saw while they were members of the State
militia," answered his father. "They helped capture the United States
arsenal at Baton Rouge and hoist the Pelican flag over it, and you would
have thought by the way they acted that they had done something grand.
But the work was accomplished without the firing of a shot, the major in
command offering to surrender if a force of six or eight hundred men was
brought against him. By the way," added Mr. Gray getting upon his feet
and tossing aside the stump of his cigar, "I expected you to do just
what you have decided upon, and if you feel like taking a walk around to
the stable before dinner, I will show you the horse I bought for you
last week. Every 'Ranger' (that's what Hubbard calls his men), furnishes
his own horse, the government allowing a small sum for the use of it;
and if the horse dies or is killed in battle, the unlucky Ranger is
expected to get another the best way he can."

"Where is this company going to serve?" inquired Rodney.

"I don't know, and neither does Hubbard. They have offered to join a
regiment that is being raised in New Orleans, but the colonel commanding
says he can't take them unless they will give up their independent
organization."

"Oh, I hope they'll not think of doing that."

"You needn't worry. More than one