Julius was still harping on the rudeness of this guard as he fanned the flies off John's table with a sassafras brush at supper.
"I don't know what dey ebber let sech poor white trash ez dat man git in er army for, anyhow!" he exclaimed indignantly.
"We have to take 'em as they come now, Julius. There's going to be a draft this summer. No more volunteers now. Wait till you see the conscripts."
"Dey can't be no wus dan dat man. He warn't no gemman 'tall, sah."
John rose from his hearty supper and strolled along the line of his regiment, recruited again to its full strength of twelve hundred men.
Two fellows who were messmates were scrapping about a question of gravy. One wanted lots of gravy and his meat done brown. The other insisted on having his meat decently cooked, but not swimming in grease. The man in favor of gravy was on duty as cook at this meal and stuck to his own ideas. They suddenly clinched, fell to the ground, rolled over, knocked the pan in the fire and lost both meat and gravy.
John smiled and passed on.
A lieutenant was sitting on a stump holding a letter from his sweetheart to the flickering camp fire. He bent and kissed the signature—the fool! For a moment the old longing surged back through his soul. He wondered if she ever thought of him now. She had loved him once.
He started back to his tent to write her a letter before they broke camp to-morrow morning. Nature was calling in the balmy spring night wind that floated over the waters of the river.
Nature knew naught of war. She was pouring out her heart in budding leaf and blossom in the joy of living.