The man gazed at him mockingly.
“What!” he cried. “You, an officer, and I the most blackguardly private in the troop?”
“I meant as a brave man and a good soldier, and it hurts me to see such a one as you going to the dogs.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about this morning, boy,” said Hanson bitterly.
“Boy? I am your officer, Private Hanson.”
“Yes, sir, I was forgetting myself; and I shall forget myself more if you stay, so please go.”
“That’s what I want you to do,” said Dick earnestly.
“I want you to forget what you are now, and be what you used to be.”
The prisoner drew his breath hardly, as if he were in pain.
“I want to be a friend to you as much as I, an officer, can be to one of our men.”