“Splendid raw material for free soap,” said Ogden.
“He’s not the only one,” said Ray. “I haven’t had a wash in nine hours, and salt meats are beginning to pall.”
“There are plenty of fellows out there will eat it for you, Ray,” said Peter, “and plenty more who have not washed in weeks.”
“It’s their own fault.”
“Yes. But if you burn or cut yourself, through ignorance, that doesn’t make the pain any the less.”
“They don’t look like a crowd which could give us trouble.”
“They are just the kind who can. They are men lifted off their common sense, and therefore capable of thinking they can do anything, just as John Brown expected to conquer Virginia with forty men.”
“But there’s no danger of their getting the upper hand.”
“No. Yet I wish we had orders to clear the Park now, while there are comparatively few here, or else to go back to our armories, and let them have their meeting in peace. Our being here will only excite them.”
“Hear that,” said Ray, as the crowd gave a great roar as another regiment came up Park Place, across the Park and spread out so as to cover Broadway.