A Dangerous Promise Read Free Page B

a haversack to carry our rations, a wool-covered tin canteen, and a rubber blanket."
    "A rubber blanket? What's that for?" Mike asked.
    "Keeps everything dry. Sometimes the ground is wet,

    and you can spread out the rubber blanket before you make up your bed."
    "I've got only about two dollars in coin to call my own," Mike said. "How much have you got?"
    Todd looked surprised. "Not much more than that. I guess we'd better take food with us, enough to last until we reach the Second Kansas Infantry and join up."
    As he and Todd looked at each other, Mike's heart gave a jump. They were going to enlist. They were really going to do it!
    The day passed slowly. That afternoon, companionably chattering to Mike about some of the latest news to reach the fort, Louisa set bread to rise, asking Mike's help in fetching wood for the stove. Mike volunteered to scrub the kitchen floor and sweep the front porch, hoping that if he stayed busy, Louisa wouldn't be able to read his thoughts.
    Finally, Louisa said, "It's a very warm day for the end of June, and I'd benefit from a nap." She unbuttoned the high collar of her dress and fanned her neck. "As for you, Mike, I think you're more in need of exercise than study at this moment. We'll delay supper until after sundown, when it's cooler, and go over your lessons this evening. Just be back in time to eat."
    Feeling too guilty to meet Louisa's eyes, Mike ducked his head, gave her a quick hug, and ran outside. He'd already set the plan in motion. He'd packed a bundle of clothing, wrapped tightly around letter-writing supplies; he'd lowered the bundle from his window, then tucked it out of sight under the stairway leading to the front porch. As soon as he was sure that Louisa had stretched out on her bed, Mike snatched up his bundle and raced to the bam.
    Todd slipped through the door just as Mike was tucking his bundle next to the drum. Todd pointed toward the bale of hay. "I shoved my pack down behind it. I've got food for us, too. Did you get any?"

    "I couldn't. Louisa would have been suspicious."
    Todd shrugged. "Ma claims I eat all the time. If I wasn't into the food, she would have thought something was up."
    "I wonder what they'll give us to eat in the army."
    "Who cares? We're not joining for home cooking."
    Mike laughed, a feverish excitement filling his chest. If all went well, he'd be an officially enlisted musician for the Union Army as soon as tomorrow.
    "I wrote Louisa a letter and tucked it under my pillow, where she'll find it tonight," he told Todd.
    "I wrote my ma a letter, too," Todd said, "only I gave it to my sister Emily to give to her."
    Mike was alarmed. "Won't Emily tell?"
    "Nope, because I paid her a dollar. She snuffled and her eyes got red, but then she admitted she was glad I was going. She's still miffed about that frog I put in her bed, among other things." Todd paused, then asked, "What did you say to Louisa?"
    "I tried to tell her how grateful I was to her and to the captain for taking me in and how much they mean to me, and then I told her why it's important for me to follow the captain's example and fight for what I believe in. I saw a slave once, captured and in chains, and I'll never forget the awful look in his eyes, like he was already dead. I told Louisa ..." Mike shook his head and said brusquely, "Well, never mind. I just hope she'll understand."
    Todd was matter-of-fact. "Doesn't really matter if she does or not, because you'll be gone."
    Mike said nothing, but he knew Todd was wrong. The captain and Louisa were his foster parents, and he loved them almost as much as he loved his own parents.
    The tack room was stifiing, and the hay made both Mike and Todd sneeze, but they stayed in their hideout. Only when the sun shot long shadows across the parade ground and the sutlers began to cover their unsold merchandise, preparing to leave the fort, did the boys venture out.

    Trembling, Mike slung the drum around his neck and picked up the drumsticks with his