“Yes; he came up here yesterday to see how we were.”
“Oh!”
“What’s the matter, my lad?”
“My father—my charge. Samson, I’m disgraced for ever.”
“What, because about sixty men surprised us in that hollow road, and cut us all down? I don’t see no disgrace in fighting like a man, and being beaten by five to one, or more than that.”
“But how came we to be surprised so suddenly?”
“Dunno, Master Fred. Some one must have known we were going through that wood, and set a trap for us.”
“And I allowed my poor fellows to walk right into it. Oh, Samson, I can never look my father in the face again!”
“Hark at him! Nonsense! It’s all ups and downs—sometimes one side wins, sometimes t’other side. We had the best of it, and then they have the best of it, and we’re prisoners. Wait till we get well, and it will be our side again. Long as we’re not killed, what does it matter?”
“Then you are wounded, Samson?”