Chaos
“Using his gun barrel as a club,” one of the bushwhackers “stepped behind Jeff” and “swung it viciously downward across the boy’s head.” “A thousand colored lights” exploded in Jeff’s skull and he “collapsed unconscious on the floor” with “a low groan.” Now “the whole Bussey family” entered the fight. Jeff’s mother “reached for a plate of boiled greens” and “hurled them at the smaller man.” Emory Bussey stood and, “brandishing a small stool, advanced around the table,” making two bushwhackers retreat. Then Mary, “Jeff’s twelve-year-old sister,” snatched up a pan of “hot dishwater from the fireplace” and threw it on them. As two men emerged from the house, the dog, “growling fiercely,” fastened “his strong teeth onto the seat of the bigger man’s trousers.” This imagery evokes a feeling of worry, for the Busseys are unarmed while the bushwhackers have guns, but it is also funny to read, for they handle an attack pretty well.
Devoted
The whole Bussey family felt sorry for Jeff. He was too young to go to the war and risk his life. They needed him at home, wanted to see him safe and sound. “Although Jeff wanted to go to the war worse than he ever wanted anything else in his life,” he felt like “crying.” Ring “kept trying to follow him,” and it was “hard to refuse him.” “Twice” Jeff sent him back, but each time “the faithful dog returned,” showing his “savage teeth in a loving grin and frisking all around,” as though they were “playing a game.” “In a hurry to get started,” Jeff had finally thrown “rocks” at Ring to “scare him home.” But the dog still hadn’t understood. This imagery evokes a feeling of pity.
Envy
“As Jeff, John, and David” turned the corners of “a barracks building,” they heard “a thunder of hoof beats” and were “almost run down by a squadron of cavalry.” “Spurs jingling, sabers rattling,” and “the oaken butts of their carbines resting against their things,” the cavalry “thundered past grandly with a drumming of horses’ hoofs” and “a creek of leather.” The whole scene was “quite a sight for a boy fresh from the plow handles.” Jeff could smell “the horses’ sweat” and see “the metal ring bits on their bridles flashing in the bright Kansas sunshine.” He “wished he were joining the cavalry instead of the infantry!” This imagery is supposed to evoke a feeling of envy.
