You came home from the academy when he told you to
remain there. You have spent the evening in Mobile when he told you not
to go there. I could tell you instances all day in which you disobeyed
him, and mother too," continued the soldier warmly.
"That was different."
"It was different; and you could obey your father in a bad cause, but
not in a good one. I am heartily ashamed of you, and I don't feel
willing to own you as a brother of mine."
"But my father told me that I could better serve the good cause by going
with him than I could by joining the army."
"And you were willing to go with him, for then you could keep out of
danger. Father is getting old, and he is not fit to serve in the army;
and you have been his pet since you were born. But that is no excuse for
you; and if I can get you back into the army, I mean to do so."
Percy was afraid he might succeed, and he did not feel as confident as
he had been; and he lost, for the time, some of his self-possession. He
was confronting the fate he had dreaded when he found the steamer was
leaving Nassau.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the major, looking down upon the
deck of the vessel for the first time.
"I am taking this steamer into the bay, where she is to go into the
service of the Confederate States," answered Percy, plucking a little
more confidence from the nature of his present occupation.
"You are taking her into the bay!" exclaimed the older brother.
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