“You missed it here, then,” proclaimed Jim. “We had a big parade and review again, and some corking speeches. And Leo’s hawss r’ared and nigh threw him off.”
“Didn’t, either,” stoutly denied Leo. “A fly must have bit him, is all. These pesky horse-flies are getting fierce, this cold weather.”
“What’d they all say?” invited Ernest, stretching himself out comfortably. “When did Sam Houston turn up? What’d he say?”
“He rode in, a short bit ago, with a bunch of men from the Red Lands. We hear tell that when he got the last message from Austin to hurry up he gave his last five dollars to an express to rustle volunteers in his section, straddled his hawss and lit out for the army. He sure can make a talk. You ought to’ve heard him.”
“He’s certainly some man,” approved Leo.
“What’d he say?” demanded Ernest, again.
“Well,” resumed Jim, “he opines, as a soldier, that we need more drill and more supplies, before we mix up with those Mexican regulars and try to take Bejar. Thinks we’d better ‘rendeves’ [gather] t’other side the Guadalupe, ’stead of here in the open, away from our base, and wait for artillery and ammunition and men. Maybe he doesn’t know Texans, but he seems to know what he’s talking about.”
“Knows how to say it, all right,” commented Leo. “I could just sit and listen to that man all day. He’s got a voice, hasn’t he! Some man, some man.”
“Austin and General Jack speechified considerable, too,” continued Jim. “Oh, we’ve got things all planned out, now. The council of war’s heard that the people are rising beyond the Rio Grande in favor of the republic under the constitution of ’24, and General Santa Anna’s kept too busy to fool with Bejar; so we’re going to march on it pronto and cut it off and besiege it. General Austin’s made arrangements with the paisanos and rancheros [ranchers] ’round here to sell us plenty corn and stuff, and we’ll have bread and horse-feed. He’s pledged his own money to pay for it with. Don Antonio Padilla, a big ranchero, and Colonel Juan Seguin of the Mexican army have joined us, with some Mexicans; and Seguin’s been made a captain in the Texas army and’ll raise a company of native volunteers. All the Redlanders and other East Texans are on the way and liable to arrive any minute, and Dr. Asa Hoxey’s sending on some twelve-pounders from San Felipe. The general consultation’s going to meet at San Felipe, where it left off when its members came to the army, and fix up a temporary government, to provide for laws and the army and look out after the rights of the settlers; and it’ll issue an official appeal to the United States to help us, too. And already there’s a couple of companies of Texas Volunteers being enlisted in New Orleans—isn’t that so, Leo?—to march out here and throw in with the Texas cause.”