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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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his soiled countenance there went a boastful smile. "Charge? Well, b'Gawd!" A little group of soldiers surrounded the two youths. "Are we, sure 'nough? Well, I'll be derned! Charge? What fer? What at? Wil- son, you're lyin'." "I hope to die," said the youth, pitching his tones to the key of angry remonstrance. "Sure as shooting, I tell you." And his friend spoke in re-enforcement. "Not by a blame sight, he ain't lyin'. We heard 'em talkin'." They caught sight of two mounted figures a short distance from them. One was the colonel of the regiment and the other was the officer who had received orders from the commander of the division. They were gesticulating at each other. The soldier, pointing at them, interpreted the scene. One man had a final objection: "How could yeh hear 'em talkin'?" But the men, for a large part, nodded, admitting that previously the two friends had spoken truth. They settled back into reposeful attitudes with airs of having accepted the matter. And they mused upon it, with a hundred varieties of expression. It was an engrossing thing to think about. Many tightened their belts carefully and hitched at their trousers. A moment later the officers began to bustle among the men, pushing them into a more com- pact mass and into a better alignment. They chased those that straggled and fumed at a few men who seemed to show by their attitudes that they had decided to remain at that spot. They were like critical shepherds struggling with sheep. Presently, the regiment seemed to draw itself |
