"Yes," he continued, with a deep sigh, "it laid away over gittin' down here, and my night in the guard-house, even. You see, after you went away I began to think about gittin' up something a little extry for you to eat. I thought about it for awhile, and then recollected seein' a little grocery that'd been set up nigh here in a board shanty." "Yes, we know about it," said Shorty, exchanging a look with Si. "Well," continued the Deacon, "I concluded that I'd jest slip over there, and mebbe I could find{232} something that'd give variety to your pork and beans. He didn't seem to have much but canned goods, and his prices wuz jest awful. But I wuz de termined to git something, and I finally bought a jug o' genuine Injianny maple molasses, a chunk o' cheese and a can o' peaches. I had to pay $5 for it. He said he had to charge high prices on account o' freight rates, and I remembered that I had some trouble in gittin' things down here, and so I paid him. He wuz very peart and sassy, and it was take-it-or-leave-it-and-be-plaguey- quick-about-it all the time. But I paid my $5, gathered the things up, and started back to the house. I hadn't got more'n 100 rods away when I met one o' these officers with only one o' them things in his shoulder straps." "A First Lieutenant," interjected Si. "Yes, they called him a Lieutenant. He spoke very bossy and cross to me, and hit my jug a welt with his sword. He broke it, and what do you suppose was in it?" [Illustration: HIT MY JUG A WELT WITH HIS SWORD 231] "Whisky," said Si and Shorty simultaneously, with a shout of laughter. "That's jest what it wuz. I wuz never so mortified in my life. I couldn't say a word. The Lieutenant abused me for being a partner in sellin' whisky to the soldiers me, Josiah Klegg, Patriarch of the Sons o' Temperance, and a Deacon. While I wuz tryin' to tell him he jabbed his sword into the can o' peaches, and what do you suppose was in that?" "Whisky," yelled Si and Shorty, with another burst of laughter. "That's jest what it wuz. Then one o' the Lieutenant's men jerked the chunk o' cheese away and{283} broke it open. And what do you suppose was in that?" "Whisky, of course," yelled the boys in uncontrollable mirth.