“'How so?' I says.
“And then he starts in to tell me, talkin' ez fast ez his tongue kin wag, and makin' gestures with both his hands, like a boy tryin' to learn to swim dog-fashion. And after a little, by piecin' together ez much of his talk ez I kin ketch, I begin to make out whut he's drivin' at; and the shock is so great I come mighty near failin' right smack off that log backward.
“Here's the way the thing stands with him: That night at the old market house, when the company is bein' formed, he happens along and sees a crowd, and drops in to find out, ef he kin, whut's afoot. Presently he makes out that there's a war startin' up ag'inst somebody or other, and, sence he's made up his mind he's goin' to live in America always and make it his country, he decides it's his bounden duty to fight fur his country. So he jest up and signs, along with the rest of us.
“Of course from that time on he hears a lot of talk about the Yankee invader and the Northern vandal; but he figgers it that the enemy comes frum somewhere 'way up North—Canada or Greenland, or the Arctic regions, or the North Pole, or some of them other furreign districts up in that gineral vicinity. And not fur a minute—not till he talked with the big Dutch prisoner that day—had it ever dawned on him fur a single minute that a Yankee mout possibly be an American, too.
“When he stops I sets and looks at him a minute, takin' it all in; and he looks back. Finally I says:
“'And so you went and enlisted, thinkin' you was goin' to fight fur the United States of America, and you're jest findin' out now that all these weeks you've been organism' yourself to fight ag'inst her? Is that it?'
“And he says, 'Yes, that's it.' And I says: 'Well, I wisht I might be dam'!' And he says, well, he wishes he might be dam' too, or in substance expresses sech a sentiment. And fur another spell we two merely continues to set there lookin' one another in the face.
“After a little I asts him whut he's aimin' to do about it; and he says he ain't decided yit in his own mind. And then I says:
“'Well, Herman, it's purty tough on you, anyway you take it. I don't rightly know all the rules o' this here war business yit, myself; but I reckin ef it was made clear to the higher authorities that you was sort of drug into this affair under false pretenses, ez it were, why, mebbe they mout muster you out and give you an honourable discharge—providin', of course, you pledged yourself not to take up arms fur the other side, which, in a way of speakin', would make you a deserter. We-all know you ain't no coward, and we'll all testify to it ef our testimony is needed. I reckon the rest of the boys'll understand your position in the matter; in fact, I'll undertake to make 'em understand.'
“He asts me then: 'Whut iss false pretenses?'”