“Yes, Uncle D’lancy. I woan’t do nothin’ else.”
“An’ ef anybody goes fur to ask yer what you air, jest you speak up bright an’ tell him you’re fust a Union man, an’ then an out-an’-out Abolitionist. Speak it out bold as ef you meant it,—Ab-o-litionist!”
“What, uncle! a d-d-da—”
The boy’s utterance subsided into a whimper of expostulation as he saw the Colonel take up the strap.
But he was spared a second application. Having given him his first lesson in morals and politics, Colonel Hyde made him wash his face, and then took him down-stairs and introduced him to Vance. The latter received with eagerness the precious letters of which the boy was the bearer; at once opened them, and having read them, said to Hyde: “I would not have failed getting these for many thousand dollars. Still there’s no knowing what trap the lawyers may spring upon us.”
Turning to Delancy junior, Vance, who had opened all the windows when the youth came in, questioned him as to his adventures on his journey. The boy showed cleverness in his replies. It was a proud day for the elated Hyde when Vance said: “That nephew of yours shall be rewarded. He’s an uncommonly shrewd, observing lad. Now take him down-stairs and give him a hot bath. Soak him well; then scrub him well with soap and sand. Let him put on an entire new rig,—shirt, stockings, everything. You can buy them while he’s rinsing himself in a second water. Also take him to the barber’s and have his hair cut close, combed with a fine-tooth comb, and shampooed. Do this, and then bring him up to my room to dinner. Here’s a fifty-dollar bill for you to spend on him.”
Three hours afterwards Delancy junior reappeared, too much astonished to recognize his own figure in the glass. Colonel Hyde had thenceforth a new and abounding theme for gasconade in describing the way “that air bi, sir, trahv’ld the hull distance from Montgomery ter New York, goin’ through the lines of both armies, sir, an’ bringin’ val’able letters better nor a grown man could have did.”
A dinner at Vance’s private table, with ladies and gentlemen present, put the apex to the splendid excitements of the day in the minds of both uncle and nephew.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE NIGHT COMETH.
“How swift the shuttle flies that weaves thy shroud!”—Young.