A Company Court-Martial

Roper chuckled. "Wasn't a trick question, lad. How is she, anyhow, and do she have a name yet?"

"She does now. She's good. Got her checked by a... well there was this man that's with t' cavalry. He's sort of like a surgeon, but fer animals, I think. She was feelin' real down... and I didn't know what to do. I worried she'd die , ye know. Took her to him. He cured her right there!" He explained both with his mouth as his hands.

"Well, then he also checked what she was, and said she was a girl. So a girl chick. Means, she'll lay eggs fer us once she's all grown up!" Again food. "..so her name's Peggy. " He looked near as proud as a father would be, when their child made its first steps.

"Ah, one of their vitnaries. Didn't know they could sort out fowls though." Pye looked as proud as anything as he spoke about the little ball of fluff, and Roper grinned. "You just keep her safe, won't you? Thought about trainin' her to sit on top of your pack durin' the march at all?"

"I wos'.. Though, dunno how ter do that. Do ye think she'll be quiet when we're out there, scoutin'?.. I wos' thinking.. but I dunno exactly what to do , when we need to be quiet, couse she's too young to understand. " Though the French hearing a bird, would be far less worried, than if they had heard a man curse.

"I'll keep 'er safe with me life, Roper.. I will."

"I reckon so. Or at least, it won't be anythin' to worry about, not the size she is." He looked up at the lad soberly. "Don't take this wrong, Zack, but we'd rather have you alive an' Peggy here dead, than the other way around. She ain't goin' to make a Rifleman as quick as you will, for sure."

Cotton couldn't help spitting his tea in laughter when Roper said that, coughing a little as a bit of the liquid went down the wrong way.

Pye blinked. Roper looked so serious when he said it. It made Pye feel like the rifles were a step closer to a family too. They cared to see him alive. Of course Cotton's laughter made Pye scowl. That was one sibling he needed to smack for making a mockery of Roper's words!

"She..." He began and glanced at the chick. ".. knows ter beat provosts already.. n' poop on em." He chucked a bit of cloth at Cotton.

Cotton managed to put his mug down without spilling any more tea. "Aye, she done that all right. Well, she gave Newbury a good peckin', tryin' to get to them provosts. She'm pretty clever, for a bit of fluff her size. Never knowed a chick like her."

"She's a fighter...chose ter be laid with t' rifles.. she did. " Pye smiled and watched at the chick went to explore the ground close to the men. He made sure, yet again, that there was no predator which might try to end her life more quickly than it began.

"She's more clever than t' provosts any day." He added as an after thought and looked at the kettle. As much as he avoided sitting directly on his rump, he would've done that and more, if only he was given a plate of food already.

"All right, let's see how it's doin'," Roper said, getting to his feet and hooking the lid off the pot with a bit of stick. "Get your plates, lads. It's done."

Cotton unfastened the straps of his pack and passed his plate over, so Roper could start serving.

as loud as he was about eating earlier, Pye looked timidly at the kettle now. He didn't want to get ahead of others, in getting the food. In a way, he had disappointed them and so, didn't even deserve to be one of the first. Waiting his turn, that's what he ought to do. Wait for everyone to get their fill and hope there was something left in the end.

So as Cotton handed his plate over, Pye only got it from his pack, but kept it in his hands, not even making a move to get up or to pass it over. He looked away, knowing that the more he watched the more he might have the urge to snatch the food and bolt. Something he might've done, when he was younger and more starved.

Roper filled Cotton's plate and passed it back, then paused with the ladle in his hand. "Want any of this or not?" he asked. "Give us your plate then, Zack." At least the lad had it out, and Roper held a hand out for it.

"I should wait." Pye didn't believe he heard himself say that." Fer t' others ter get it firs'. 'Couse... it wouldn't be fair, from me.." He shuffled though. It was clear how eager he was to give his plate. Even if he said he would wait, and even if he would've waited if told so, it did not make it any less his great wish to get the food as quickly as he could.

"You're here, with a plate. No point waitin', is there?" Roper was pleasantly surprised, and pleased, by Pye's attitude. He reached for the plate.

Pye looked at Roper, torn between protest and compliance. "..Only if others agree." He glanced at Cotton. He didn't hold his plate very strongly though, and even the lightest touch could pretty much take it away from him. He licked his lips. When did he start caring about these sort of things?!

"Jus' give him your plate, Zack lad, an' stop dawdlin' with it," Cotton said, pulling out his own spoon and sitting down to dig in.

Roper leaned over a little and took it from the lad's hand even before Cotton had finished speaking. It was barely a moment later when he passed the plate back, and turned to dish up for Jacklin.

Pye looked at his plate, smiled brightly, his jaw looking ready to dislocate itself with such a big grin that it was next sporting. He glanced up, gratefully at both Cotton and Roper, and then dug in without further ado. He was hungry, there was no lie in that. Though, it was yet to be a moment in his life, when he would feel too full to continue eating.

"Than'uh." He said with his mouth full. He gulped the chunk down and managed a moment to grin again. His chick had come back, gazing at the men searchingly for any food of her own. Of course she would not get anything that was boiling in the kettle, but she didn't even know that it was not edible, or meant for her.

"I never seed anyone's eye get so big as yourn do," Cotton said, grinning over his spoon. "I'll see if I can scuff sup'm up for you in a bit," he said, holding a finger out for the chick to explore.

"M' eyes?" Pye looked up startled. His eyes didn't get big. Well, he never noticed it. Why would his eyes go big? He touched a hand over one. He blinked it. Wasn't any bigger, was it?

"They's get big?" He asked, and watched as the chick peck at Cotton's finger. She seemed to debate whether this was a really fat earth worm, or yet again one of those fingers, that were attached to a palm, and she could not really eat.

Cotton chuckled. "I meant, you went all wide-eyed there for a moment, mate," he said kindly. "There ain't anythin' wrong with you, mate." he chuckled as the chick peck at his finger. "Ain't a worm, you, jus' me finger," he said, but wiggled it a little anyway.

"Oh.. well." Pye grinned. "It's.. food." He sounded apologetic when he said that, which didn't stop him from having his plate cleaned up to its last speck of anything edible. He sighed contently. "..You get ter have a one track mind, when yer used ter live by t'.. search, eat.. sleep, search fer it ag'in. "

The chick attacked the finger, with loud chirps. The pecks though weren't as painful as they could've been, had she attacked a provost. It was almost, as if she was playing along, or learning to 'hunt' for worms on a harmless finger of a rifleman.

"Yeah." It couldn't have been an easy life, not for a young lad. He chuckled as the chick pecked playfully at his finger, and thought for a second before dpping his finger into his mug of tea before offering it to the chick to taste. "Good stuff, that," he said, grinning at the thing.

"Jus' dun' give it any beer or summat, to drink. Couse t' animal surgeon said she should not be got' used to that." Pye said as he observed the two. The chick studied the finger sceptically, then pecked it. When she got a small taste of tea, she tried to have some more, and did so a lot more gently. She chirped and looked at Cotton's mug. She wasn't stupid. She knew where that finger was. With a loud chirp she leaped up suddenly and flapping her ..well not even wings yet, just little fluffy stubs, she tried to get onto the mug.

"This is life." Pye said, with some delight. "Takes work but..gives this, always. Constant', always!"

"Told you 'bout one o' Ma's hens gettin' into any beer we managed to leave out, didn't I?" Cotton said, watching the little thing. "Leastways, I think I did. That was a right broody thing, that hen. Here, wait a minute," he added, picking up the mug. He poured a little of the lukewarm liquid in it into the palm of his hand and offered that to the fluffy thing. "There, that'll be easier than tryin' to perch on me mug like it's a chee-stick."

"Thanks, Gabe. ..Fer spoilin' er." Pye said, smiling as the chick happily drank from the palm of the rifleman's hand. She chirped , looked up and then jumped right into the palm, clearly thinking that after a good drink, she could also have a fine dip. She splashed herself and happily chirped, looking at Gabe as if challenging him to protest.

Cotton grinned as it drank some of the tea before jumping right into his hand and splashing about in it. "You daft creature. You ain't s'posed to go bathin' in it. An' you won't be able to do that when you'm full-growed, for sure you won't."

Roper laughed at the chick's antics, between mouthfuls of stew. "She'll likely try, though, Gabe," he said.