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"At once." "What shall you do?" "I--I don't know." His legs began to tremble, and he sank heavily on a chair. "I--I am too sick to join the army, mother," he went on, half pleadingly. Now Mrs. Ruthven did not care to have him leave her, yet she was but human, and it filled her with disgust to have her only offspring such a coward. "You weren't very sick this morning." "I know that. But the sun has affected my head. I feel very faint." "If you don't join the ranks, all of our neighbors will put you down as a coward, St. John." "They can't want a sick man along," he whined. "They will say you are shamming." "But I am not shamming. I feel bad enough to take to my bed this minute." "Then you had better do it," answered Mrs. Ruthven, with, however, but little sympathy in her voice. "I will go to bed at once." "You must not forget that your cousin, Harry Powell, is in the army." "Yes, on the Yankee side." "Still he is brave enough to go. Marion may think a good deal of him on that account." "Well, I would go, for Marion's sake, if I felt at all well," groaned St. John. "But I am in for a regular spell of sickness, I feel certain of it." "Then go to bed." "Write Colonel Raymond a note stating that I am in bed, and tell him I would join the ranks if I possibly could," groaned St. John, and then dragged himself upstairs and retired. Here he called for a negro servant and had a man go for a doctor. Much disgusted, Mrs. Mary Ruthven penned the note, and sent it to town, shielding her son's true character as much as possible. For the remainder of the day St. John stayed in bed, and whenever a servant came into his room he would groan dismally. When the doctor arrived he was alarmed, until he made an examination. "He is shamming," thought the family physician. But as the Ruthvens were among his best customers, he said nothing on this point. He left St. John some soothing medicine and a tonic, and said he would call again the next day. Instead of using the medicine, the young spendthrift threw it out of the window. "Don't catch me swallowing that stuff," he chuckled to himself. "I am not altogether such a fool." Several days passed, and nothing of importance happened to disturb those at either of the Ruthven plantations. But a surprise was in store for Jack and those with whom he lived. One of the wounded soldiers stopping at Mrs. Alice Ruthven's home was named George Wal
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