United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
"We will not discuss the matter," said the Colonel coldly. "Come,
Barbara, I will take you to your quarters, and under pain of my severest
displeasure, I expect that you will have no more to say to this young
person."
Bob gave Jeanne a long sad look, and then silently gathering up her
belongings, left the tent.
And now began a dreary time for Jeanne. Cold looks greeted her on every
side. The old, pleasant, cheery companionship with Bob was no more. She
missed even the tiffs they had had, and longed with a passionate yearning
for home and friends. The march to Jackson would have been a pleasant one
as it led through the autumn woods which shone through a silvery mist
amid spicy breezes which blew cool and keen from the heart of the pines,
had it not been for the manner in which she was treated.
No one paid the least attention to her comings and goings. Indeed it
seemed to her that Colonel Peyton would gladly welcome the fact of her
disappearance, and so she grew into the habit of riding a little apart
from the others and sometimes of loitering considerably in the rear of the
cavalcade. It had been the original intention that she go in the wagon
with Bob, but under the altered conditions a horse had been given her
while Bob rode in front with her father.
The afternoon of the second day out Jeanne dropped behind the regiment,
for she was very tired, intending to wait for the wagons and to ask the
drivers to let her rest for a while in one of them. A bend of the road
hid the regiment from view. The wagons were far in the rear and for the
time she was alone.
"Jeanne," came her name in low tones from the underbrush at the side of
the road.
Jeanne drew rein quickly and looked wonderingly about her. She saw nothing
and thinking that she had imagined the call, she started to go on, when
it came again.
"Jeanne! Jeanne! Wait a moment."
Pale and trembling the girl stopped, and then to her astonishment Dick
came breathlessly though the undergrowth.
"Dick!" she cried. "Oh, Dick!"
"I have waited and watched for this chance ever since I left the camp,"
cried the lad. "Come with me, Jeanne. You have no business with these
rebels."
"But Colonel Peyton----" began Jeanne.
"Come," cried Dick seizing the bridle of her horse. "I do not understand
why you are here, but it is no place for you. I will take you home."
"Will you, Dick?" asked the girl joyfully, preparing to dismount.
"Don't get off the horse. We will need him. I don't know just where our
men are, and we may have a long distance to go."
"But he is not ours," objected Jeanne, whose residence among soldiers had
not been long enough to render her conscience elastic on this point.
"Yes, he is," answered Dick. "The Government confiscated all the property
belonging to the Johnnies long ago, and I guess this horse comes under
that act. I am only doing my duty in taking the animal."
"Do you think so?" asked Jeanne, dubiously.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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