Boys like to rough it. He had come to care
little for these things. He was getting manlier.
His mother called him her protector ; his father,
when he came home, as he did once or twice a
year, called him ' ' a man, ' ' and introduced him
to his friends as "my son."

His mother began to consult him, to rely on
him, to call on him. He used to go about with
her, or go for her wherever she had business,
however far off it might be.
The war had been going on two years, when
the enemy first reached Jack's home. It was
a great shock to Jack, for he had never doubted
that the Confederates would keep them back.
There had been a great battle some time before,

302



"JACK AND JAKE"

and his father had been wounded and taken
prisoner (at first he was reported killed). But
for that, Jack said, the "Yankees" would never
have got there. The Union troops did not
trouble Jack personally; but they made a
great deal of trouble about the place. They
took all the horses and mules that were good
for anything and put them in their wagons.
This was a terrible blow to Jack. All his life
he had been brought up with the horses; each
one was his pet or his friend.
After that the war seemed to be much more
about Jack's home than it had been before.
