Thur's a mighty grist o' venturin', I heern; beats Injun fightin' all holler, an' yur jest the beaver I'd 'spect to find in that 'ar dam.

Why don't you go ?" "So I purposed long since, and wrote on to Washington for a commission; but the government seems to have forgotten me." "Dod rot the government! git a commission for yourself." "How ?" I asked.
"Jine us, an' be illected--thet's how." This had crossed my mind before; but, believing myself a stranger among these volunteers, I had given up the idea.

Once joined, he who failed in being elected an officer was fated to shoulder a firelock.

It was neck or nothing then.

Lincoln set things in a new light.