“Old Doctor Stone, nigh us, is a-lookin’ after ‘im,” was the hasty product of her bewildered invention. “He ’ll do all that can be done—an’—an’ I want to keep brother from thinkin’ about army folks as much as I can. Will you-uns camp nigh us long?”
“We leave inside of an hour.” He raised his cap, saluted his men, gave an order, and they whirled and tramped away.
She went back into the cabin and sat down by the side of Ericson’s pallet. There was something in his dumb glance and subdued air that quenched the warmth of her recent success. As he looked at her steadily his eyes became moist and his powder-stained lips began to quiver.
“I didn’t ’low you’d play sech a dog-mean trick on me, Sally,” he muttered. “I’d ruther a thousand times ‘a’ been shot like a soldier than to hide in Yankee clothes.” Under her warm rush of love and pity for him she completely lost the touch of hauteur that had clung to her since his return. She took his hand in hers and bent her body down till his fingers lay against her cheek. He could feel that she was deeply moved.
“I couldn’t stand to see ’em take you off,” she sobbed. “Because you are all I got on earth to keer fer. It would ‘a’ killed you, an’ me, too.” Her voice took on the gentle cadences of a mother consoling a sick child. “Grandpa will take off the mean old blue suit an’ put you up in the big bed, and I ’ll make you some good chicken soup with boiled rice in it.”
He pressed her hand.
“Do you raily want me heer, Sally?”
Her reply was a moment’s hesitation, a convulsive motion of the vocal cords, a failure of speech, and a final pressure of her lips on his fingers.
“Beca’se ef I ‘lowed you did, Sally, I wouldn’t keer much which side beat. I wouldn’t be able to think about any livin’ thing but you.”
“Well, you can, then,” she said; and she rose quickly. “Grandpa, I’m goin’ in t’other room to fix ’im some chicken soup. Undress ’im an’ put ’im to bed, an’ then go fetch Doctor Stone.”