"Do you not comprehend me? Say, has love no sharper eyes? Oh, my dear, dear—Julia—" here Corporal Diggs' manner became demonstrative; he seemed to forget the severe wounds, and, starting from the garden seat, down he went on one knee, and drawing from the sling the arm that had been shattered by grapeshot, he clasped his hands as if in prayer. "Oh, my dear—hem, hem, hem!—my darling Julia, I love you! I have loved you ever since I first saw you, and I ask you—hem, hem!—to become mine. Accept this heart, which you have captured, and give me yours in return."
His speech delivered, the little corporal remained on his knee, with his eyes closed and his lips pursed, in his endeavor to appear absorbed and earnest.
"Mr. Diggs, your behavior is very unbecoming the brave soldier I took you to be," said the lady, after a moment's hesitation. "This is no time to talk of love."
At this rebuke Mr. Diggs rose from his knees, abashed and confused, and resumed his seat.
"We have enough, Corporal Diggs, to engage our minds for the present. While our beloved country is in peril we must forget all personal feelings. Let its dangers and its salvation be paramount."
"But when this cruel war is over, and peace returns once more, will you then consent to become my wife?" persisted the corporal. "I—I—love you, and I—I—I can't help it. Say you will be my wife!"
"It is growing rather late, Mr. Diggs, and the air is chilly. We will return to the house."
They accordingly rose, and Diggs, walking in sullen, abashed silence by the widow's side, entered the great stone mansion. Mrs. Juniper retired to her own room, and Corporal Diggs to the cellar.
Mrs. Julia Juniper had a tall, lantern-jawed, ill-disposed, and envious neighbor, who was a Union man for no other earthly reason than that all his neighbors were Confederates. He lived in a wretched little hovel, had a sickly wife, and eight children. He might have made a living on his little farm, but was too lazy to work, and continually engaged in petty lawsuits with his neighbors. Josiah Scraggs was a communist at heart, and he felt sure that, as he was such an excellent Union man and Mrs. Julia Juniper so decidedly "secesh" in principles, that eventually her magnificent mansion and large plantation would be taken from the widow and given to him. He had confided his hopes to his sickly wife and dirty children, and all were anxious for the happy change. Josiah Scraggs was constantly reporting the conduct of his neighbors, especially of the widow Juniper, to any Union soldiers who might be in the neighborhood. He had been watching the mansion since the battle of Carrick's Ford, for he suspected that she was "harboring secesh soldiers." Sure enough, one evening he saw the widow and Corporal Diggs walking together in the garden, and away he went to the headquarters of Colonel Holdfast, who was about ten miles away, to give information that secesh soldiers were concealed in the widow's mansion.
He rode the old gray mare into the camp, and called for the colonel. Being shown to his tent, he quickly made the object of his visit known, magnifying many fold what he had seen, and leaving the colonel to infer that many more might be in the house.