"I
can't make aout wat's come over ye. Ye talk 's though ye didn' keer a
Bungtaown copper wether we fit or run, or stayed an got hung, but jess
set thar a grinnin tew yerself ez if ye'd loss yer wits."
Perez laughed again, but checking himself, replied: "I s'pose I do
seem a little queer, Abner, but you mustn't mind that. I hope I
haven't lost my wits quite. Let's see, now," he went on in a
businesslike tone, with the air of one abruptly enforcing a new
direction upon his thoughts. "We could get up the men and retreat to
the mountains by morning, but two-thirds would desert before we'd
marched two miles, and slink away home, and the worst of it is the
poor chaps would be arrested and abused when they got home."
"That's sartin so, Cap'n," said Abner, his anxiety for Perez' sanity
evidently diminishing.
"It's a shame to retreat, too, with such a position to defend. Why,
Abner, just look at it. The snow is three to four feet deep in the
fields and woods, and the enemy can only come in on the road. That
road is just like a causeway through a swamp or a bridge. They can't
go off it without snowshoes. With half a company that I could depend
on, I'd defend it against a regiment.
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