crippled for
life at Saratoga, bore witness that patriotism with them was no hollow
pretence. And look at the present. My brother John going through battle
after battle with Duryea's Zouaves, in Virginia, like a brave man and a
soldier; and I lying helpless here, while my cousin Egbert has his
regiment almost raised."

"_Almost_," said the young girl, in a tone which showed that she did not
think he had quite accomplished that laudable endeavor.

"And will be going down directly," Crawford continued.

"Yes, going down, clear down, that is if he ever starts!" commented
saucy Josephine.

"Yes, I remember, you do not like my cousin Egbert," said the invalid.

"I do not like humbugs anywhere!" sharply said the young girl. "Why
don't you call him 'Eg.,' as you do sometimes? Then I should be tempted
to make a few bad puns, and to say that in my opinion he is not a 'good
egg,' but a 'hard egg,' if not a 'bad egg,' and that I hope if he ever
gets among the Virginia sands he will come out a 'roast egg' or a
'cracked' one!"

"Shame, Joe, what do you mean!" said the invalid, really pained by her
flippancy.

"Mean? why, mean what I say!" was the answer, "and that is a good deal
more than most of the people do now-a-days. Your cousin Egbert is a big
humbug! I never see him strutting about, with his shoulder-straps and
his red sword-belts, but I have a mind to take the first off his
shoulders, with claws like a cat, and use the second to strap him with,
like a truant school-boy!"

"Why, Josephine, Josephine!" cried the invalid, still more surprised.

"Don't stop me!" said the wild girl. "I have intended for some time to
say this to you, but you have been very sick, and somehow I could not
begin the conversation. Now that it is begun, I am going to out with it,
if it costs a lawsuit. I do not like that man, nor would you if you
could know him half as well as I do. In the first place, I believe he is
a coward, and worth no more to the cause than just what his gimcracks
would sell for."

"Shame!" again said the invalid. "Josephine, you are really going too
far. If he was a coward, why would he have placed himself in a position
which must by-and-by be one of danger?

"Bah!" said the young girl, "I do not see that he has done any thing of
the kind. Officers have the right of resigning, and some of them have
the habit of skulking, I have heard. I will bet my best bonnet against
your old worn-out slippers there, that if ever