Page 160 - Among the camps, or, Young people's stories of the war

he is yours. I found him and Caught him acid gaye him to
you.

His mother explained to him her reasons. She did not
thmk it was right for him to keep the horse obtained in such
a way. Jack argued that he had found the horse running wild
in their own woods, and did not know his owner. This made
no difference; she told him the horse had an owner. He
argued that the soldiers took horses, had taken all of theirs,

and that their own soldiers—the gentlemen w ho had come to
tea—had been over and taken a lot from the camp. His
mother explained to him that that was different They were
all soldiers wearing uniforms, Engaged ppenly in war. What

they took was capture ; Jack was not a soldier, and was not
treated as one. Jack told her how he had been shot at and
chased. She was firm. She wished the horse returned, and
though jack wept a little for the joint reason of having to
give up the horse and the mortification of restoring it to the
Yankees, he obeyed. He had some doubt whether he would
not be captured ; but his mother said she would write a letter

to the commanding officer over there, explaining why she
returned the horse, and this would be safe* con duct. She had
known the colonel before the war. and he had once stopped
at her house after a little battle beyond them. Colonel W il­

son had, in fact, once been a lover of hers.
The idea of going with a sale-conduct was rather soothing
to Jack's feelings; it sounded like a man. So he went and
fed the horse* Then he went and asked jake to go with