All that day troops came up and Grant's army, after having gone away from Grand Gulf in darkness, was coming back to it in daylight.
“They say that Pemberton at Vicksburg could gather together fifty thousand men and strike us, while we've only twenty thousand here,” said Pennington.
“But he isn't going to do it,” said Warner. “How do I know? No, I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. There's nothing mysterious about it. This man Grant who leads us knows the value of time. He makes up his mind fast and he acts fast. The Confederate commander doesn't do either. So Grant is bound to win. Let z equal resolution and y equal speed and we have z plus y which equals resolution and speed, that is victory.”
“I hope it will work out that way,” said Dick, “but war isn't altogether mathematics.”
“Not altogether, but that beautiful study plays a great part in every campaign. People are apt to abuse mathematics, when they don't know what they're talking about. The science of mathematics is the very basis of music, divine melody, heaven's harmony.”
“You needn't tell me,” said Pennington, “that a plus b and z minus y lie at the basis of 'Home, Sweet Home' and the 'Star Spangled Banner.' I accept a lot of your tales because you come from an old state like Vermont, but there's a limit, George.”
“Frank,” he said, “I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you. Haven't you known me long enough to accept whatever I say as a fact, and to accept it at once and without question? Not to do so is an insult to me and to the truth. Now say over slowly with me: 'The basis of music is mathematics.'”
“Now I accept your apologies,” said Warner loftily.
“You're a queer fellow, George,” he said. “When this war is over and I receive my general's uniform I'm coming up into the Vermont mountains and look your people over. Will it be safe?”
“Of course, if you learn to read and write by then, and don't come wearing your buffalo robe. We're strong on education and manners.”
“Why, George,” said Pennington in the same light tone, “I could read when I was two years old, and, as for writing, I wrote a lot of text-books for the Vermont schools before I came to the war.”
“Shut up, you two,” said Dick. “Don't you know that this is a war and not a talking match?”