“He certainly does, and he’s got a commission backed by a government. He’s higher than the President of the Jones-County Confederacy. That’s the commission I am working for.”
One would not have thought that Mr. Newman was working very hard for that commission to have seen him at that moment. In fact he did not seem to be working for anything. He was sitting there perfectly quiet and waiting for the commission to come to him.[him.]
“I tell you, boys, you must work hard for that colonel’s shoulder-straps,” said Mrs. Newman, taking her stand in the door with her arms placed on her hips. “You won’t be wearing no ragged clothes like you be now, and I’ll have a silk dress to wear at all seasons. You won’t catch me around cooking as I am now. I’ll be a lady, and have a better pipe than this to smoke.”
“And who knows but that father might get us something?” said Dan. “I’ll bet if you held old Sprague’s position you would give me something besides a private in your ranks.”
“That’s just what I am thinking of,” returned Mrs. Newman. “Your father was telling me about it last night. Of course he would have a staff, and you two would come in for two of the offices mighty handy. I tell you you want to work hard. Your father doesn’t seem to be able to do anything.”
“And what is the reason?” exclaimed Mr. Newman, taking his pipe from his mouth with one hand and extending the other toward his wife. “Do you suppose I am going to run down there among all that crowd and stand all the risk of getting my neck stretched for treachery? The boys can do what they please and nobody will say a word to them; but let me go down there and carry news of what has been going on and you will see how long you have got a husband to take care of you. It ain’t safe for me to go there.”
“I didn’t think about your being hung,” said Mrs. Newman, indifferently.
“Of course that is what they are up to, and they are thinking now how it could be done.”
“Yes,” exclaimed Cale, “they told me that I had best go among the rebels, where I belonged.”
“Don’t that prove what I said? I ain’t going down there any more. But I want to see them lock you up, if they dare do it. That’s what I am aching for.”