We got into bed, and as soon as I could decently do it I feigned sleep, to avoid conversation.
I lay thinking for hours after the Colonel had gone to sleep—hours, indeed, of fearful expectation. It was awful to room with a man like Colonel Busby, but, after all, it was a good schooling in bravery, and the time had come when I must be brave. I longed for perils, and for even a wound or two. If there should be a war I would enlist, if possible, and show her how brave I could be. Perhaps, if I became very brave and good and strong and great, she would forgive my lack of size and beauty.
In the midst of these reflections my companion lay groaning with nightmare, and this further thought came to me that, hard as it was to be his friend, it would be still more terrible to be Colonel Busby himself.
To such a hopeful state of mind my last adventure had brought me.
ADVENTURE IX.—WHICH DESCRIBES THE COERCION OF SAM AND HIS WEDDING
JOURNEY
