The Red Acorn [78]
be Lord Mayor and train for shis London. We can rig out right here. Our trouseau's here in shis hair trunk."
"Shall we get anyshing t' drink?" inquired Abe making a temporary collection of his wits with a violent effort.
"Abe!" the freezing severity of Kent's tone and manner would have been hopelessly fatal to early vegetables. "Abe you've many good qualities--more of 'em shan any man I know. but a degrading passion fur shtrong drink is ruinin' you. I'm your besht fren, an' shay it wish tearsh in m' eyes. Lemme beg o' you t' reform ere it ish too late. Beware of it, my fren, beware of it. It shtingeth like a serpent, an' biteth like a multiplier--I mean an adder. You haven't got my shuperb self-control, an' so yer only shafety lies in total abstinence. Cheese it, my fren, cheese it on she sheductive but fatal lush."
"Are we goin' out t' meet she boysh?" inquired Abe.
"Shertainly we are. Yesshir. An' we're goin' out ash I proposed. Yer a shplendid feller, Abe," continued Kent, with lofty patronage. "A shplendid feller, an' do great credit t' yer 'portunities. But y' haven't had my 'dvantages of mingling constantly in p'lite s'ciety, y'know. Rough diamond, I know, 'nall that short o' shing, but lack polish an' easy grace. So I'll be th' Lord Mayor, an' y'll be th' train. Undershtand?"
He lurched forward, and came near falling over the chair, but recovering he stiffened up and gazed on that useful article of furniture with a sternness that implied his belief that it was a rascally blackleg trying to insinuate itself into the circle of refinement and chaste elegance of which he was the particular ornament.
"Come," he resumed, "le's bedizen ourselves; le's assume th' shplendor 'propriate t' th' 'casion."
When the troops marched in in the afternoon, the encountered at the head of the crowd that met them at the crossing of the creek just ouside of town, a man who seemed filled with deep emotion, and clothed with strange fancies. He wore a tall silk hat of antique patter, carefully brushed, which he protected from the rays of the sun with a huge blue cotton umbrella. A blue broadcloth coat, with gilt buttons, sat jauntily over a black satin vest, and nankeen trousers. A pair of gold spectacles reposed in magisterial dignity about half way down his nose, and a large silver-headed cane in the left hand balanced the umbrella in the right. By the side of the man with rare vestments stood another figure of even more limpness of general bearing, whose garb consisted of a soldier's uniform pantaloons and woolen shirt--none too clean--set off by a black dress-coat, and white linen vest.
As the head of the column came up he in the blue broadcloth pulled off his hat and spectacles, and addressed himself to speech:
"Allow me, shir, to welcome you with hoshpitable hands to a bloody--no, let me tender you, shir, the liberties of our city, and reshoice shat she old banner which has braved she battle, hash---"
The column had stopped, and the Captain commanding the advance was listening patiently to what he supposed was the address of an enthusiastic, but eccentric old Kentuckian, when one of the sharp-eyed ones in the company shouted out:
"I declare, it's Kent Edwards and Abe Bolton."
The yell of laughter and applause at the ludicrous masquerade shook the hills. The Colonel rode up to see what occasioned it. He recognized his two men, and his face darkened with anger.
"You infernal rascals," he shouted, "you have been off plundering houses, have you, in place of being with your company. I'll stop this sort of thing mighty sudden. This regiment shall not degrade itself by plundering and robbing, if I have to shoot every man in it. Captain, arrest those men, and keep thim in close confinement until I can have them tried and properly punished."
Chapter XVII. Alspaugh on a Bed of Pain.
This is the very ecstacy of love, Whose violent property foredoes itself. And leads the will to desperate undertakings As often as any passion under Heaven That does afflict our natures.--Hamlet
"Shall we get anyshing t' drink?" inquired Abe making a temporary collection of his wits with a violent effort.
"Abe!" the freezing severity of Kent's tone and manner would have been hopelessly fatal to early vegetables. "Abe you've many good qualities--more of 'em shan any man I know. but a degrading passion fur shtrong drink is ruinin' you. I'm your besht fren, an' shay it wish tearsh in m' eyes. Lemme beg o' you t' reform ere it ish too late. Beware of it, my fren, beware of it. It shtingeth like a serpent, an' biteth like a multiplier--I mean an adder. You haven't got my shuperb self-control, an' so yer only shafety lies in total abstinence. Cheese it, my fren, cheese it on she sheductive but fatal lush."
"Are we goin' out t' meet she boysh?" inquired Abe.
"Shertainly we are. Yesshir. An' we're goin' out ash I proposed. Yer a shplendid feller, Abe," continued Kent, with lofty patronage. "A shplendid feller, an' do great credit t' yer 'portunities. But y' haven't had my 'dvantages of mingling constantly in p'lite s'ciety, y'know. Rough diamond, I know, 'nall that short o' shing, but lack polish an' easy grace. So I'll be th' Lord Mayor, an' y'll be th' train. Undershtand?"
He lurched forward, and came near falling over the chair, but recovering he stiffened up and gazed on that useful article of furniture with a sternness that implied his belief that it was a rascally blackleg trying to insinuate itself into the circle of refinement and chaste elegance of which he was the particular ornament.
"Come," he resumed, "le's bedizen ourselves; le's assume th' shplendor 'propriate t' th' 'casion."
When the troops marched in in the afternoon, the encountered at the head of the crowd that met them at the crossing of the creek just ouside of town, a man who seemed filled with deep emotion, and clothed with strange fancies. He wore a tall silk hat of antique patter, carefully brushed, which he protected from the rays of the sun with a huge blue cotton umbrella. A blue broadcloth coat, with gilt buttons, sat jauntily over a black satin vest, and nankeen trousers. A pair of gold spectacles reposed in magisterial dignity about half way down his nose, and a large silver-headed cane in the left hand balanced the umbrella in the right. By the side of the man with rare vestments stood another figure of even more limpness of general bearing, whose garb consisted of a soldier's uniform pantaloons and woolen shirt--none too clean--set off by a black dress-coat, and white linen vest.
As the head of the column came up he in the blue broadcloth pulled off his hat and spectacles, and addressed himself to speech:
"Allow me, shir, to welcome you with hoshpitable hands to a bloody--no, let me tender you, shir, the liberties of our city, and reshoice shat she old banner which has braved she battle, hash---"
The column had stopped, and the Captain commanding the advance was listening patiently to what he supposed was the address of an enthusiastic, but eccentric old Kentuckian, when one of the sharp-eyed ones in the company shouted out:
"I declare, it's Kent Edwards and Abe Bolton."
The yell of laughter and applause at the ludicrous masquerade shook the hills. The Colonel rode up to see what occasioned it. He recognized his two men, and his face darkened with anger.
"You infernal rascals," he shouted, "you have been off plundering houses, have you, in place of being with your company. I'll stop this sort of thing mighty sudden. This regiment shall not degrade itself by plundering and robbing, if I have to shoot every man in it. Captain, arrest those men, and keep thim in close confinement until I can have them tried and properly punished."
Chapter XVII. Alspaugh on a Bed of Pain.
This is the very ecstacy of love, Whose violent property foredoes itself. And leads the will to desperate undertakings As often as any passion under Heaven That does afflict our natures.--Hamlet