"Then you are glad you have only one year more at the
Academy?"
"Of course I am glad! I'll never be under Yankee rule again;
not if I know it."
"Suppose they elect a Yankee President?" I said; but Preston's
look was so eager and so sharp at me that I was glad to cover
my rash suggestion under another subject as soon as possible.
"Are you going to be busy this afternoon?" I asked him.
"No, I reckon not."
"Suppose you come and go up to the Fort with me?"
"What fort?"
"Fort Putnam. I have never been there yet."
"There is nothing on earth to go there for," said Preston
shrugging his shoulders. "Just broil yourself in the sun, and
get nothing for it. It's an awful pull up hill; rough, and all
that; and nothing at the top but an old stone wall."
"But there is the view!" I said.
"You have got it down here — just as good. Just climb up the
hotel stairs fifty times without stopping, and then look out
of the thing at top — and you have been to Fort Putnam."
"Why, I want to go to the top of Crow's Nest," I said.
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