“Well, my brave boy, a soldier does not sit down to weep over his wrongs, like a woman; he rises up to avenge them like a man!”
“‘And that I mean to do on every blamed Unionist I can find!’ I answered.
“‘Quite right. Now you’re a-chatting. That’s the talk! Now to help you to do this, how would you like to take service under one of our gallant independent leaders?’ he asked.
“‘One of the guerrilla chiefs, do you mean?’ I inquired.
“‘That’s what the lying Yankees call us, blast them! We are no more guerrillas than we are Cossacks!’ exclaimed Haddycraff angrily.
“‘But for my part, I thank the Yankees for bestowing it. I should glory in the name of guerrilla,’ I said.
“‘Ha, ha, ha! we have made it a terror to the clock-peddling heroes who have mistaken their vocation and come down here to fight us,’ chuckled Haddycraff.
“‘To be a gallant guerrilla is the height of my ambition,’ I said.
“‘Then how would you like service under the brave Free Sword?’
“‘The Free Sword!’ I exclaimed, with enthusiasm. ‘Oh, Heaven! I should think it almost too much glory to hope for, to live and die in the service of the great Free Sword!’