"Why, what has he done to you?" The captain could not help smiling as he spoke, and Frank felt encouraged.
"He's a rebel of the worst kind. He is always insulting the federal uniform, and he seems to think that whoever wears it is a villain. He threatened to set his dog on me the other day, and to-day he was going to knock me down with his gun."
"What was he going to knock you down for? You must have done something to provoke him."
"Yes, I did!" said Frank, boldly. "I went to his house, and asked him, in the politest way I could, if he would sell us fellows a turkey. I might have known that it would provoke him, for he has been heard to say he'd rather his turkeys should die in the pen than that a Union soldier should have one, even for money."
It was evident to the secessionist that instead of making out a case against the boy, the boy was fast making out a case against him. In his impatience he broke forth into violent denunciations of Frank, but Captain Edney stopped him.
"None of that, sir, or I'll send you out of the camp forthwith. He says,"—turning to Frank,—"that you decoyed him into the woods while your companions stole his turkeys."
"Decoyed him?" said Frank. "He may call it what he pleases. I'll tell you just what I did, sir. He said he hadn't any turkeys. So I said, 'Then the one I heard in the woods, as I came along, isn't yours—is it?'"
"Had you heard one?"
"I had heard a noise so much like one,"—laughing,—"that he himself, when he heard it, was ready to swear it was his gobbler."
"And was it really a turkey?"