“If it hadn’t been for the thought of me! Well, now, I like that! That’s cool!” exclaimed Elfie; “especially when, by your own showing, pap, if it had not been for you and Ned and the kicking gun, I should have stood my ground and died game, or driven off the assailants on the last occasion as I had done on the first. I’m sure I did very well on that first occasion, when I hadn’t you to help me, pap! But on the last! Well, what could I do with fiery-hearted foes outside raging to get in, and faint-hearted friends inside crying to get out; and my very weapon recoiling upon me and kicking me down! I tell you all what! I fought against fearful odds on every hand! Joan of Arc herself would have given in under such circumstances! Not that I would, if it hadn’t been for that cowardly pap of mine!”
“I don’t think either you or your papa have reason to be ashamed of your conduct on that occasion. ‘What could you ’gainst the shock of hell?’” said Dr. Rosenthal.
“Well, anyhow, I know what I’ll do next time. If ever I find myself in command of a domestic castle in siege, I’ll lock pap up in his bedroom till the fight’s over. You hear that good, don’t you pap?” said pap’s daughter, saucily.
“But, Elfie, my darling, where have you left that good old negro who rescued you from the burning house?” inquired Erminie.
“Oh, he’s all right. He is at the Drover’s.”
“You know, Elfie, he would be quite welcome in our kitchen. Our servants would take care of him.”
“‘Thanky, honey,’ as Ned would say; he is very well where he is. Besides, pap and I haven’t come to quarter ourselves upon you so suddenly. We only wanted to see the smiling faces of friends after having seen the frowning faces of so many foes. That is all. Presently we intend to go out and look for a boarding-house where we can stop for the present.”
“Indeed, you will do no such thing, Miss Elfie! In the first place, there are no boarding-houses but what are already crowded. In the second place, here is my house, open to receive any of my friends at any time, and especially wide open to welcome any number of friends for any length of time, who have suffered from their devotion to this Union which has fostered me for nearly fifty years! So, friend Fielding, you will please make yourself at home where you are,” said Dr. Rosenthal, with earnest sincerity in every word, tone and look.
Farmer Fielding put out his sturdy hand and shook the fat fist of the good doctor, as he replied:
“Thank ye, minister! for the present I accept your kind invitation, the more especially as I shall be backward and forward from here to Virginia, and sha’n’t like to leave my little girl alone in a boarding-house. Thank ye, kindly, minister! We’ll stop with you a bit, until we can turn ourselves round.”