I Was So Nervous, And Talking To A Soldier That Way Was So Very
Disagreeable, I Might Have Broken Down And Cried Again - An Awful Thing
To Have Done At That Time - If I Had Not Happened To Have Seen Hang's
Head Sticking Out At One Side Of His Door.
He had run to his room
again, but could not resist keeping watch to see if Volmer was really
intending to "killee" me.
He is afraid of the soldier, and
consequently hates him. Soon after he came, Volmer, who is a powerful
man, tied him down to his bed with a picket rope, and such yells of
fury and terror were never heard, and when I ran out to see what on
earth was the matter, the Chinaman's eyes were green, and he was
frothing at the mouth. For days after I was afraid that Hang would do
some mischief to the man.
It is the striker's duty always to attend to the fires throughout the
house, and this Volmer is doing very nicely. But when Faye went away
he told Hang to take good care of me - so he, also, fixes the fires,
and at the same time shows his dislike for Volmer, who will bring the
big wood in and make the fires as they should be. Just as soon as he
goes out, however, in marches Hang, with one or two small pieces of
wood on his silk sleeve, and then, with much noise, he turns the wood
in the stove upside down, and stirs things up generally, after which
he will put in the little sticks and let it all roar until I am quite
as stirred up as the fire. After he closes the dampers he will say to
me in his most amiable squeak, "Me flixee him - he vellee glood now."
This is all very nice as long as the house does not burn.
Night before last Mrs. Mills invited me to a family dinner. Colonel
Mills was away, but Mr. Hughes was there, also Lieutenant Harvey to
whom Miss Mills is engaged, and the three Mills boys, making a nice
little party. But I felt rather sad - Faye was still en route to
Washington, and going farther from home every hour, and it was
impossible to tell when he would return, Mrs. Mills seemed distraite,
too, when I first got to the house, but she soon brightened up and was
as animated as ever. The dinner was perfect. Colonel Mills is quite an
epicure, and he and Mrs. Mills have a reputation for serving choice
and dainty things on their table. We returned to the little parlor
after dinner, and were talking and laughing, when something went bang!
like the hard shutting of a door.
Mrs. Mills jumped up instantly and exclaimed, "I knew it - I knew it!"
and rushed to the back part of the house, the rest of us running after
her. She went on through to the Chinaman's room, and there, on his
cot, lay the little man, his face even then the color of old ivory.
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