I could see Aggie felt the same, and, though I
did my best to keep up their spirits, I had a terrible time of it until
your letter arrived, saying you were safe. If it had not come, I do
believe that I should have gone quietly off to Exeter, hunted up my box
again, and hired a boy to push it for me, for I am not so strong as I
was. But I would rather have tramped about, for the rest of my life,
than remain there under your mother's reproachful eye. However, thank
God you came through it all right, and, after such a lesson, I should
hope that we shall never have repetition of such a disaster as that. As
an old soldier, I cannot agree with what you say about the uselessness
of drill, even for fighting in a forest. It must accustom men to listen
to the voice of their officers, and to obey orders promptly and
quickly, and I cannot but think that, if the troops had gone forward at
a brisk double, they would have driven the Indians before them. As to
the whooping and yells you talk so much about, I should think nothing
of them; they are no more to be regarded than the shrieks of women, or
the braying of donkeys."
James smiled as he read this, and thought that, if the old soldier had
heard that chaos of blood-curdling cries break out, in the still depth
of the forest, he would not write of them with such equanimity.
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