from The Drasnoe Pipe-Line
by Arthur Stanwood Pier
On a windy and sullen morning in May, 1864, a caravan of fifty wagons, each piled high with barrels, crawled down the muddy road from the Drasnoe oil-field. Beside the leading team of the procession walked a one-armed man and a fifteen-year-old boy. The faces of the two were not cheerful. That of the man was sad; the boy's was anxious.
Behind trooped the other teamsters, shouting, cracking their long blacksnake whips, swearing at the horses, the mud, the threatening sky. They were always boisterous and blasphemous during the long daily haul.
The one-armed man and the boy walked together silently by preference.
"Do you suppose General Grant is done fighting by this time?" the boy asked at last.
His companion smiled sadly.
"I guess he won't be done fighting for a good many months yet. But I shouldn't wonder if he was out of the Wilderness by now."
"It must be a big battle," said the boy. "Most as big as Gettysburg, don't you think, John?"
"Pretty nigh."
"How long do you suppose before we hear about father—whether he's all right?"
"Depends on how long the battle lasts. I guess in a week."
"That's an awful time to wait. Your folks didn't hear about you till ten days after it happened, did they?" He glanced at the empty sleeve.
"I believe not. But there was a good deal to tend to after Gettysburg. Maybe there won't be so much in this battle."
"I wish I was down there instead of hauling oil every day," said the boy.
"You're making more money hauling oil," replied the teamster. The boy glanced at him, hurt and scornful. "Yes," continued the man, in his quiet voice, "you're making quite a heap of money. As long as you're doing that, what's the good of running off to fight? That's what all that gang behind us would tell you—and there's mighty few of them that are staying away from the war to support their mothers." In his quiet voice there brimmed suddenly the full bitterness of contempt: "Floaters—and stay-at-homes!"
The boy thought that John Denny was hard on the men. At least it was not cowardice that kept them hauling oil when they might be shouldering rifles. The boy had seen too many evidences of their courage and recklessness to believe that . . . Nor was it altogether greed for the dollars that were so lavishly being squandered in the oil country in those days that detained them; among them there was hardly one who was laying money by . . .
It was the excitement of a sudden prosperity, greater than they had ever expected or foreseen and the joy of indulging it that had made them heedless of the call to arms.
Which of the following conclusions is supported by evidence in the passage?
A.
The boy is yet too young to be able to join the war effort as a soldier.
B.
The boy has stayed out of the war to support his mother while his father is fighting.
C.
The boy holds the other teamsters in contempt for not joining up as soldiers.
D.
The boy is resentful because he believes John does not support the war effort.
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