“Here’s this sumach—what would you make of it?”
“Look at it philosophically. Analyse it: Taste—acid; Color—red. Now what is there that is acid and red?”
“There are currants for one thing, and there’s something else, I’m sure—oh, cranberries.”
“Then we must make currants and cranberries out of sumach. But for my part I’m greatly distressed about this wretched fowl—what can we do with him?”
“We might boil him, though he is young and will do to roast.”
“What are you thinking of?—one small fowl on a table before fourteen hungry men; ridiculous!”
“Yes, and these healthy fellows have got fearful appetites. They eat like alligators. When they draw three days’ beef they devour it in one, for fear (as they say) that somebody might steal it. Can’t you make a salad of him such as you used to send over to us at Camp Groce? Do you know when we first came there we all thought the dressing was real?”
“Let us see—we have vinegar, to be sure, and some red peppers. But there is not time now to manufacture the mustard, and then we have no milk or butter to make the oil from. No! it’s very sad, but we can’t have chicken salad!”
“Well, the haversacks are full, so we may as well go on. It rains harder than ever, and that low piece of road will be over our boots in mud and water. I wonder if we shall find the potatoes and pumpkin all safe?”
Our friend “Plenty” duly delivered to us those vegetables when we reached his cabin. Now, a couple of officers trudging along in the mud on a rainy day, laden with a bag of potatoes, a big pumpkin, a couple of overloaded baskets, and several haversacks and canteens, cannot present a very elegant or dignified appearance; nevertheless, a tall man mounted on a ragged-looking steed, and wearing his head stuck through a hole in the middle of his blanket, after the fashion of a Mexican poncha, accosted us as “gentlemen,” and in most courteous terms desired to know whether this was the road to Marshall. He gave just one quick, keen glance that travelled all over us, and rested for a single instant on our shoulder straps.