es. They declared that the Island was as strong
as Gibraltar, and if the Yankees were foolish enough to send an
expedition against it, there wouldn't be a man of them left to tell the
story of the fight; and they wanted all the youngsters in the country to
go there and enlist, so that they could be able to say that they had
assisted in winning the most glorious victory of modern times. They were
very enthusiastic themselves, and they made some others so; but Marcy
Gray, who kept a close watch of all that went on in the settlement, did
not see more than a dozen young men and boys fall in in response to
their earnest appeals.

"It's a disgraceful state of affairs," said Tom Allison one morning,
when Marcy met him at the post-office. "The Southern people deserve to
be whipped, they are so lacking in patriotism."

"Did you ever think of going into the army yourself?" inquired Marcy.

"I can't go," replied Tom. "We have sent our overseer, and that is as
much as we can do at present. I wanted to enlist weeks ago, but father
said I must stay at home and help him manage the place."

Marcy found it hard to keep from laughing outright when Tom said this.
The latter had never done a day's work at overseeing or anything else,
and it is doubtful if he could have told whether or not a corn furrow
was laid off straight. He was too indolent to do anything but eat,
sleep, and ride about the country.

"There are plenty around here who could go as well as not," continued
Tom, "and I might go myself if I could only get a commission. But I
won't go as a private soldier."

"Have you tried to get a commission?" asked Marcy.

Tom replied that he had not. He did not know how to go about it, and was
not acquainted with any one who could tell him.

"Then hunt up General Wise, and ask his advice," suggested Marcy. "He
can, and no doubt will put you on the right track at once."

But Tom Allison was much too sharp to do a thing like that. He was well
aware that enlisted men had no love for "cits" who could go into the
army and wouldn't, and the promise of a colonel's commission would not
have induced him to go among them. He meant to remain at home and let
other and poorer men's sons do the fighting, and Marcy knew it all the
while.

The latter did not put much faith in the stories that Captain Beardsley
and Colonel Shelby had spread through the country, and when his mother's
negroes began coming home in companies of twos and threes, he p