e got his
smashed with a bullet comin' through the abatis, and's bin mournin'
about 'em ever since. These is better'n his was, and he'll be ticked to
death to git 'em."

He put them to his eyes and scanned the landscape.

"Ain't they just daisies, though. Bring that teamster over there so
close that I kin hear him cussin' his mules. Cap'll have a better pair
o' glasses than the Colonel or the General has. He deserves 'em, too.
Capt. McGillicuddy's good all the way through, from skin to bone, and as
brave as they make 'em. He'll be tickleder than a boy with a new pair o'
red-topped boots. He'll invite me to take a drink with him, but he won't
have nothin' so good as this old apple-jack. I guess I'll give the rest
to him, too, for his friends at headquarters. They don't often smack
their lips over stuff like that. But I'll treat myself once more, just
as Capt. McGillicuddy'd do."

The last drink was a settler. He was then in a frame of mind for
anything--to tear down a mountain, or lift a hill, or to fight anybody,
with or without cause. He looked over at the boys struggling with the
limber, and yelled, as he laid his coat, hat, canteen, and cartridge-box
down on the stump upon which he had been sitting, and placed the
field-glass upon them:

"Hoopee! Yank her out o' there, boys. Yank h'er out, and don't be all
day about it, either. Let me git at her and I'll fetch her out. Stand
by, you kids, and see your uncle Eph snatch her."

He bolted in to the ravine, swung the limber-tongue about, and with aid
of the rest, stirred to united effort by much profane vociferation on
his part, disengaged the limber and trundled it up the bank.

The tall, very stiff young Aid, with whom Si and Shorty had had the
previous affair, came stalking on to the ground, viewing everything with
his usual cold, superior, critical gaze.

"You are doing well, my man," he remarked to Shorty, "but too much
noise. A non-commissioned officer must not swear at his men. It's
strictly against regulations."

"Go to blazes," said Shorty, scarcely under his breath. The Aid picked
up the field-glasses, looked at them a minute, scanned the field with
them, and then looked around for the case, as if to appropriate them
himself.

"Here, drop them," said Shorty roughly. "Them's mine."

"How did they come to be yours, sir?" said the Aid sternly. "Picked them
up, didn't you?"

"None o' your business how I got 'em. They're mine, I tell you. Give 'em
to m