"If I hear
another word out o' you I'll buck-and-gag you."

They marched to Regimental Headquarters and halted, and the
Lieutenant-Colonel renewed his browbeating, Si and Shorty continued
obstinate, and the Lieutenant-Colonel, getting angrier every
minute,{264} ordered them tied up by the thumbs. While the Sergeant of
the Guard, who was a friend of the boys, and had little heart for the
work, was dallying with his preparations, the Colonel himself appeared
on the scene.

"Ah, Colonel, you've got back, have you?" said the Lieutenant-Colonel,
little pleased at the interruption. "I've just caught two of the men in
a little job o' nigger-stealin', and I was about to learn them{265} a
lesson which will break them of the habit. With your consent I'll go on
with the work."

"Nigger-stealing?" said the Colonel quietly. "You mean helping a slave
to get away? Did you learn whether the owner was a loyal man?"

"I don't know as that makes any difference," replied 'the
Lieutenant-Colonel surlily. "As a matter of fact, I believe he said he
had two sons in the rebel army."

[Illustration: "I'LL INVITE YOUR ATTENTION TO THE EMANCIPATION
PROCLAMATION 264]"

"Well, Colonel," said the other, "I'll invite your attention to the
Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, and the orders from the
War Department, which prohibit the return of slaves to disloyal owners,
and make it the duty of officers and men to assist in their escape. You
had better dismiss the men to their quarters."

"If that's the case if I don't resign. I'm no

"Abolitionist. I didn't come into the army to free the niggers."

"I shall take pleasure in forwarding your resignation with a
recommendation of its acceptance for the good of the service," said the
Colonel calmly.

"Men, go to your quarters."

"Altogether, Pap, I consider this a mighty good day's work," remarked
Si that evening after supper, as they sat around the fire smoking, with
Abraham Lincoln snoring vigorously on the floor, in his first night's
sleep as a free man.

CHAPTER XXII. TRYING TO EDUCATE ABRAHAM LINCOLN

TOO HIGH-PRESSURE SCHOOLING--THE BOYS ON PICKET.

ALL THREE of the men at once became guardians of Abraham Lincoln, and in
their several ways heartily interested in his welfare.

The Deacon was fired by the missionary spirit of his kind and class.

"No use talkin' no more about the heathen 'On Greenland's icy
mountains,' or any place else," he communed with himself tha