t moved. The whole land swayed under an intense agitation.
The news of skirmishes along the border came, magnified and colored
in the telling. Men's minds were inflamed more every day.

When Harry had been in Frankfort about a week he received a letter from
St. Clair, written from Richmond, urging him, if he could, to get an
assignment to the East, and to come to that city, which was to be the
permanent capital of the South.

"We are here," he said, "looking the enemy in the face. Langdon and I
are in the same company and I see Colonel Talbot and Major St. Hilaire
every day. We are going to the front soon, and before the summer is out
there will be a big battle followed by our taking of Washington."

"But you must come, Harry, to Richmond and join us before we march.
This is a fine town and all the celebrities are crowding in. You never
saw such confidence and enthusiasm. Virginia was slow in joining us,
but, since she has joined, she is with us heart and soul. Troops are
pouring in all the time. Cannon and wagons loaded with ammunition and
supplies are hurrying to the front. The Yankees are not threatening
Richmond; we are threatening Washington. Be sure and get yourself
transferred to the East, Harry, where the great things are going to
happen. Friends are waiting for you here. Colonel Talbot and Major
St. Hilaire have a lot of power and they will use it for you."

Harry was walking on the hills that look down on the Capitol, when he
read the letter and its warm words made his pulses leap with pleasure.
He felt now the pull of opposing magnets. He wanted to remain in
Frankfort with his father and see the issue, and he also wanted to join
those South Carolina comrades of his in the East, where the battle
fronts now lowered so ominously.

He thought long over the letter, and, at last sat down by the monument
to the Kentucky volunteers who fell at the battle of Buena Vista.
The pull of the East was gradually growing the stronger. He did not
see what he could do at Frankfort, and he wanted to be off there on the
Virginia fields where the bayonets would soon meet.

The curious feeling that war could not come here in his own land
persisted in Harry. It was late in the afternoon with the lower tip of
the sun just hid behind the far hills and the landscape that he looked
upon was soft and beautiful. The green of spring was deep and tender.
Everything rough or ugly was smoothed away by the first mellow tou