‘I’m with ye thar,’ answered Ephraim. ‘’Tain’t the purtiest sight in the world, I’ll allow.—My! Luce, ye do look a spruce young soldier, I tell ye.’
‘Do I?’ said Lucius, smiling faintly. ‘I’m afraid I don’t feel very like one just now. That poor man was taller than you thought, Grizzly. The coat is all right, but the trousers are dreadfully long.’
‘Roll ’em up a bit, then,’ advised the Grizzly. ‘Set your cap a leetle more ter wan side. Thar, now ye’ll do. Say, ain’t we a pair er fust-class invaders when all’s said and done?’
‘You seem to have forgotten one thing,’ said Lucius lightly, for he was beginning to accommodate himself to circumstances.
‘And what might that be, bub?’
‘Why, though no doubt we shall be all right if we meet any Federals so long as we have these uniforms on, yet, suppose we run against our own men, where shall we be then?’
‘Safe, I reckon,’ answered Ephraim promptly. ‘I guess in thet case we’ll be took prisoners, and if we’re not, why, we’ll give ourselves up ter the fust Confederate we set eyes on, and arsk him ter be obligin’ enuff ter arrest us.’
‘But supposing they shoot before they ask?’ went on Lucius.
‘I’ll be durned ef I suppose ennything er the kind,’ retorted Ephraim. ‘I’ll wait till it happens and then tell ye both what I think of it.—Thar’s wan thing, though, Luce,’ he added. ‘Ye look all right in wan way, smart and spry and all thet; but ye’re too young by a long sight.’
‘I can’t help that,’ giggled Lucius, ‘unless you’ll lend me a bit of your beard.’