JENNY. I told you to tell papa that I'd let him know when Madeline and I were ready to go.
BARKET. I tould him that I'd as soon move a train of army mules.
JENNY. I suppose we must start for home again to-day?
BARKET. Yes, Miss Jenny, in charge of an ould Sargeant wid his arm in a sling and a couple of convalescent throopers. This department of the United States Army will move to the rear in half an hour.
JENNY. Madeline and I only came yesterday morning.
BARKET. Whin your father got ye's a pass to the front, we all thought the fightin' in the Shenandoey Valley was over. It looks now as if it was just beginning. This is no place for women, now. Miss Gertrude Ellingham ought to go wid us, but she won't.
JENNY. Barket! Captain Heartsease left the regiment yesterday, and he hasn't rejoined it; he isn't with them, now, at the head of his company. Where is he?
BARKET. I can't say where he is, Miss Jenny. [_Aside._] Lyin' unburied in the woods, where he was shot, I'm afraid.
JENNY. When Captain Heartsease does rejoin the regiment, Barket, please say to him for me, that--that I--I may have some orders for him, when we next meet. [_Exit on veranda._
BARKET. Whin they nixt mate. They tell us there is no such thing as marriage in Hiven. If Miss Jenny and Captain Heartsease mate there, they'll invint somethin' that's mighty like it. While I was lyin' wounded in General Buckthorn's house at Washington, last summer, and ould Margery was taking care of me, Margery tould me, confidentially, that they was in love wid aitch ither; and I think she was about right. I've often seen Captain Heartsease take a sly look at a little lace handkerchief, just before we wint into battle. [_Looks off._] Here's General Buckthorn himself. He and I must make it as aisy as we can for Miss Jenny's poor heart.
BUCKTHORN. Sergeant Barket! You haven't started with those girls yet?
BARKET. They're to go in half an hour, sir.
BUCKTHORN. Be sure they do go. Is General Haverill here?
BARKET. Yes, sir; in the house with some of his staff, and the Surgeon.
BUCKTHORN. Ah! The Surgeon. How is Colonel West, this morning, after the wound he received last night?
BARKET. He says, himself, that he's as well as iver he was; but the Colonel and Surgeon don't agray on that subject. The dochter says he mustn't lave his room for a month. The knife wint dape; and there's somethin' wrong inside of him. But the Colonel, bein' on the outside himsilf, can't see it. He's as cross as a bear, baycause they wouldn't let him go to the front this morning, at the head of his regiment. I happened to raymark that the Chaplain was prayin' for his raycovery. The Colonel said he'd court-martial him if he didn't stop that--quick; there's more important things for the Chaplain to pray for in his official capacity. Just at that moment the trumpets sounded, "Boots and Saddles." I had to dodge one of his boots, and the Surgeon had a narrow escape from the ither one. It was lucky for us both his saddle wasn't in the room.
