“You, Jack!”
“Yes, I.”
“Did mother say so?”
“No, but she won’t care.”
“Did you ask her?”
“No; I didn’t think of going till after I started from home.”
“Don’t think of it, Jack. It would be an awful blow to mother to have both of us go.”
For half an hour Tom argued the matter with John; but the military enthusiasm of the latter had been so aroused by the march and its attendant circumstances, that he could not restrain his inclination.
“If I don’t join this company, I shall some other,” said John.
“I shall have to go home again, if you do; for I won’t have mother left alone. We haven’t been mustered in yet. Besides, I thought you wanted to go into the navy.”