"Is it almost morning, mother? Hurra for the old fla—"
"Forward with Company 2, immediately," thundered a messenger who at this moment came tearing
to the spot. "The Confederacy has flanked the Conic Section, and is trying to escape."
Preferring to defer death itself rather than see his beloved country outwitted by the rebels, Captain Samyule Sa-mith darted swiftly to his feet at the word, and instantaneously led Company 2 down the hill at double-quick. I followed him half-way, my boy, and then turned off into a cross road, where I found Captain Villiam Brown striving to get a portion of the devoted Conic Section into a straight line by ranging it against a fence. Villiam ceased his labors when he saw me approaching, and says he:
"Here's conquering beings for you. Ah!" says Villiam, proudly, "I sent these invincible beings on a bayonet charge just now, and they have all come back without their muskets."
"What did they do with them?" says I.
"Left them sticking in the foe," says Villiam, exultingly.
"Are you sure of that, my Alcibiades?" says I, skeptically.
"Why," says Villiam, confidentially, "they didn't bring a single one back with them, and of course they must have left them sticking into the paralyzed Confederacies."
If Villiam could draw a checque as easily as he can draw an inference, my boy, he might paper the outside of the universe with ten dollar bills and have enough fifties left to make a very deep border.