"Gavin Witherspoon!"
Thus were we four comrades the first to be selected for this post of honor which will be remembered, as I fondly believe, long after we are gone from this world, and in all the Carolinas were no four individuals more puffed up with pride and pleasure than we.
Around us everywhere were envious eyes, as if life had suddenly lost all its charm, and death were the one thing most desired.
Man after man was thus summoned to take his place in the ranks of the devoted, until we had the full number two paces in advance of all the rest, and then it was my uncle said, moving up and down the line as if it pleasured him to look on those who were selected for the most perilous venture:
"Gentlemen, it may be that after another hour has passed we shall not meet again on this earth. Therefore I pray you, those who have any request to make, speak now, that we may remember in the days to come that all you desired was granted."
No man spoke for so long a time as would have taken me to count twenty, and then Gabriel Marion, dear lad that he was, raised his cap courteously, as he bowed and said:
"Major James, if it so be the request we make now be granted, I pray your pardon when I ask a selfish one, which is that us four who have been comrades since I joined the brigade—us four who have eaten and slept together, may not be separated when you shall divide this squad into two. That we may be allowed to go on side by side, as we have from the day I first knew these lads and Gavin Witherspoon."
"It shall be as you say," my uncle replied, and then turning, looked at the others.
Emboldened by Gabriel's speech, one man requested that should he fail to return, evidence might be sent his kinsmen that he was proud at being able to thus serve the colonies.
Another made a similar request, and so on until perhaps half a dozen had spoken, when all fell silent.