Si Klegg, Book 1: His Transformation from a Raw Recruit to a VeteranMcElroy, John
History
Si Klegg, Book 1: His Transformation from a Raw Recruit to a Veteran
McElroy, John
Indiana -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
As Wilse Hornbeck let his splendid voice out on the mournful cadences,
Si felt his very heart strings snap, and even Shorty drew his breath
hard, while some of the men simply rolled over, and burying their faces
in their arms, sobbed audibly.
Wilse had not counted on losing his own nerve, but found his voice
breaking on the melancholy last lines, and bounding to his feet with a
petulant,
"Oh, hang it!"
"Say, darkies, hab you seen de Massa"
came dancing up from the jubilating chords of that wonderful human music
box, and soon the camp was reeling giddily with the jolly, rollicking,
"Or Massa ran, ha! ha!!
The darkies stay, ho! ho!!"
Then, far in the distance a bugle sounded "lights out," and the songfest
was at an end; as bugler after bugler took it up, one by one the
campfires blinked out, and squad after squad sank into quiet.
"I feel a heap better somehow," remarked Si, as he crawled under his
blanket.
"Dogged if I hain't had a sort of uplift, too," muttered Shorty, as he
wrapped his blanket round his head. In the distance a tenor voice was
singing as he kicked out his fire and got ready for bed--
"Glory, glory, hallelujah."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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