friend.

"I suppose not; but I don't see that there is anything treasonable in my
saying that I don't believe in making war upon those who cannot defend
themselves."

"If some of those defenseless persons had been the means of getting you
bushwhacked and your buildings destroyed, you might think differently.
But come on, and I will make you acquainted with some of the best among
the boys."

There were only two "boys" in the tent into which he was conducted, and
they were almost old enough to be gray-headed; and as they were getting
ready to go on post, Rodney had little more than time to say he was glad
to know them. Then Dick said he had some writing to do for the captain
that would keep him busy for half an hour, and in the meantime Rodney
would have to look out for himself.

"Here's a late copy of the _Richmond Whig_, if you would like to see
it," said one of his new messmates, who having thrown a powder horn and
bullet pouch over his shoulder, stood holding a long squirrel rifle in
one hand while he extended the paper with the other. "There's an
editorial on the inside that may interest you. If the man who wrote it
had been trying to express the sentiments of this mess he could not have
come nearer to them. Good-by for a couple of hours."

When he was left alone in the tent Rodney hunted up the editorial in
question and read as follows:

"We are not enough in the secrets of our authorities to specify the day
on which Jeff Davis will dine at the White House, and Ben McCulloch take
his siesta in General Siegel's gilded tent. We should dislike to produce
any disappointment by naming too soon or too early a day; but it will
save trouble if the gentlemen will keep themselves in readiness to
dislodge at a moment's notice. If they are not smitten, however, with
more than judicial blindness, they do not need this warning at our
hands. They must know that the measure of their iniquities is fall, and
the patience of outraged freedom is exhausted. Among all the brave men
from the Rio Grande to the Potomac, and stretching over into insulted,
indignant and infuriated Maryland, there is but one word on every lip
'Washington'; and one sentiment in every heart vengeance on the tyrants
who pollute the capital of the Republic!"

The paper was full of such idle vaporings as these, but they fired
Rodney Gray's Southern heart to such an extent that he was almost ready
to quarrel with Dick Graham when the latter came into the te