I sneaked out to watch him as a curious
child would, still intent on seeing his wounds. Soon as Aleck saw me, he
got a board and nailed it on the plough close to the handle for a seat,
and tied up the old horse's tail so it wouldn't switch in my face, and
put me on it, and I never left that plough till sundown. My father asked
Aleck where he had learned that trick, and Aleck told him he used to
take his little brother that way before he died.
"After the orchard was ploughed Aleck didn't do a thing but look after
me. We fished together and went swimming together; and we hunted eggs
and trapped rabbits; and when I got older and had a gun Aleck would go
along to look after the dogs and cut down the trees when we were out
for coons.
"Once I tumbled into a catfish-hole by the dam, and he fished me out;
and once, while he had crawled in after a woodchuck, a rock slipped and
pinned him down, and I ran two miles to get help, and fell in a faint
before I could tell them where he was. What Aleck had in those days I
had, and what I had he had; and there was no difference between us till
the war broke out.
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