Free A Perilous Proposal by Michael Phillips

where they don’t belong.”
    The soldier glanced toward Jake where he stood silently watching.
    â€œWhat you lookin’ at, boy?” he said.
    â€œNuffin’, suh. I’s jes’ standin’ here.”
    â€œWell, I don’t like your looks. You’re an ugly cuss.—He give you any trouble?” he said, turning again to Sergeant Billings.
    â€œJust the usual with their kind,” answered Billings. “Youknow how dim-witted they are.”
    â€œAnd you know what to do if he does?”
    â€œYes, sir. He knows the taste of a horse whip, all right.”
    â€œGood man! Well, if he gives you any backtalk as long as we’re here, you come see me. I’m overseer for a big plantation down in Louisiana. I know how to handle his kind.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    The man turned his horse around and he and his men rode off. It was silent a minute.
    â€œYou mean what you said ’bout me bein’ dim-witted, suh?” said Jake after a bit.
    â€œAw, heck no—I was just saying what that Johnny Reb wanted to hear,” said Billings. “If he’d have thought I was too soft, he might have made us some trouble.”
    But there wasn’t any trouble. After two days, the battalion of Confederate soldiers moved on and Captain Taylor’s company came out of hiding. They planned to wait another day or two before moving on.
    On the day they were leaving, in early afternoon, Jake and Sergeant Billings saw someone walking toward them from the direction of the farmhouse. The house was about half a mile away and was an eight or ten minute walk. When the walker got closer, they saw that it was the farmer’s fifteen-year-old daughter. Though Jake had heard some of the men talking about her, he hadn’t seen her before. Now that he did, he thought she must be about the most beautiful girl he had ever seen of any color, white or black. She was short and had long hair that was kind of halfway between blond and auburn red and came down over her shoulders. As she walked up to them and glanced over at Jake, the look that came over her face was almost one of hatred. She didn’t look so pretty then! No one can look pretty or handsome when hatred is in their eyes.
    Jake realized he’d been staring at her without thinking about it. Quickly he looked away.
    â€œHi,” she said, and her voice was as pretty as her face. “Are you Sergeant Billings?”
    â€œThat I am, pretty lady,” said Billings.
    â€œMy mama sent me out to tell you that she’s made up a stew and biscuits if you’d like to come into the house and join your men.”
    â€œWell, that’s right neighborly of her. You see anything of my captain?”
    â€œHe was inside talking to her. He said it’d be all right, and to tell you that the Confederates have left and that you could come and have something to eat and that you’d bring the horses in afterward.”
    Billings walked slowly toward her. “What about your daddy?” he said. “He there too?”
    â€œYes, and he’s madder than a wet hen,” said the girl, laughing lightly as if she thought it funny. “He’s storming and cursing like I’ve never heard him before. He about hit the roof when Mama started fixing up a stew on the cook stove and asked me to stir up a batch of biscuits. He asked her what she was doing and she said that those poor young men in the barn hadn’t had a hot meal in two days and that she was going to fix them something to eat. That’s when he got really mad and then finally your captain had to come in and calm him down and Daddy didn’t like that at all.”
    â€œWhat did he do?”
    â€œHe stormed and fussed and your captain said that if he didn’t stop it he’d have to tie him up again and gag his mouth.”
    â€œThat’s Captain Taylor, all right!” Billings laughed. “So how long till that stew and those