I hope to-day you will meet
them at luncheon. I can understand that you feel a little uncomfortable at
this first meeting with a lot of officers as officers yourselves; but, of
course, you must do it sooner or later, and it would be much better doing
so at once.
"The next thing is, what can I give them to eat? I should be glad if you
will send out a dozen foraging parties in different directions; there must
be little villages scattered among the hills that have so far escaped
French and English plunderers. Let each party take four or five dollars
with them. I want anything that can be got, but my idea is a couple of
young kids, three or four ducks, or a couple of geese, as many chickens,
and of course any vegetables that you can get hold of. My man Sancho is a
capital cook, and he will get fires ready and two or three assistants.
They will be here by one o'clock, so the foraging parties had better
return by ten."
"If there is anything to be brought you shall have it, Colonel," Bull
said; "Macwitty and I will both go ourselves, and we will get half a dozen
of the captains to go too; between us it is hard if we don't manage to get
enough."
By ten o'clock the officers rode in, almost every one of them having some
sort of bird or beast hanging from his saddle-bow; there were two kids, a
sucking pig, two hares, half a dozen chickens, three geese, and five
ducks, while the nets which they carried for forage for their horses were
filled with vegetables.
Pages:
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515