Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 123: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

6 BERTHA AND THE MAJOR. “What sort of a person is he?’’ inquired Bertha, anxiously. ‘‘Have you ever seen him ?”’ ‘‘Sure, I haven’t. He’s a young fellow, they tell ane. 7 regular fire-eater, be the powers! If he were only an Irishman, now, I’d have some respect for the divil.’? ‘“VYou say he’s in the neighborhood ?”’ ‘““He was last seen not a thousand miles from here, me jewel,”’ ‘It is to be hoped you will capture such a desperate character.’ ‘Faith, I hope so myself. It would be quite a feather in my cap, do you mind. Mosby would give a good deal to get him in limbo, so he would.’’ “Do you like pre—I beg your pardon, I don’t know your name.”’ ‘‘Me name, is it? Major de Banyan at your service, ma’am.’’ “Happy to make your acquaintance, major,’’ she said, with a smile. ‘Do you mind that, now?’ said de~ Banyan, to himself. ‘‘Ah, Phelim, me boy, what a divil ye are among the girls.’? Then he remembered her question. ‘Do I like pie, did ye say? Faith, I do. Is it a meat pie?”? ““No,’? she said, laughing; ‘ eased: » “Sure then, I’ve a soft spot for custard, so I have. Ill try just the smallest bit in the world, » and he helped himself to half of it. At this moment the farmer appeared, and began talking with the major. Bertha trembled lest the ad man should reveal the fact that Moses was under his roof at that very moment. He had not heard the conversation between his niece and the major, and was therefore not posted with regard to the situation. comicbooks.co