“I—I am not at the University any longer, Miss Agnes,� he said soberly.
“Not at the University!� She looked at him in dismay. He had always been a mischievous chap, and she had had her doubts and fears about his college course, but gradually these had subsided. Now he was in his senior year; and here he was back home. What scrape had he got into?
Jeff’s light-blue eyes were twinkling, and now he laughed till his fair, freckled face reddened to the roots of his sandy hair.
“I always could get a rise out of you, Miss Agnes!� he said. “Here you are wondering what I’ve done to get sent away from the University, just as mother did. And it never occurred to you that I’ve left of my own free will.� A new light came into the bright eyes. “I’ve enlisted. And, gee! won’t a uniform be full of me!�
“Enlisted!� she echoed. “But, Jeff, your mother—she always said she could never consent to——�
“Oh, she’s a trump, the ace of trumps! Of course she hates war. The War took so many of her people—her father and both her uncles—and all the things. She knows what war is. But when I put it up to her, she said ‘Go!’ Of course I’d have had to do it anyway. I couldn’t look myself in the face in a mirror if I sat safe at home and let others risk their lives to make the world a decent place for me to live in. So I’ve come to say good-by to you who�—he returned to his waggish tone—“put me up to going.�
“I?� She was amazed. “Why, Jeff, I’ve not seen you even to say ‘how-dye-do’ since war was declared.�
“Oh, I wasn’t thinking about lately. It was the way you taught us history; not Jack’s book that was so dry every time we turned a page it raised dust, but in spite of it you made us know what America stands for, the things for which a man ought to be willing and glad to risk his life. Grandmother says�—he grinned—“I’m fighting for Confederate principles, the right of self-government. Isn’t she a darling, red-hot old Southerner?�
“And I’m going, too, Cousin Agnes,� said William Eppes. “I didn’t know it till yesterday; but father knew it.�
“Your father knew it?� she repeated.