to catch sight of the rest of Co. Q coming over the crest. They
whirled their horses around, and started back on a sharp trot, while the
boys were reloading.

"Go ahead. Sergeant," shouted Capt. McGillicuddy, from the rear. "Follow
them up. We're right behind you. Push them back on their reserves."

"All right, Cap. Back they go," shouted Si, leading forward his squad
in a heavy-footed run down the road. They soon came to an opening of
somewhat level ground, made by the clearing around a cabin.

The rebel squad halted beyond the cornfields, turned about, and opened
fire.

"Holy smoke, look there," gasped Monty Scruggs, as a company of rebel
cavalry came tearing over the hill in front, to the assistance of their
comrades.

"Them ain't many for cavalry," said Shorty, as he and Si deployed the
boys behind fence-corners, and instructed them to shoot carefully and
low.

"Sargint, see there, and there," shouted Alf Russell, as other companies
of rebels came galloping through over the crest, while the first
arrivals began throwing down the fences, preparatory to a charge.

"Yes, there's about a rijimint," Si answered coolly. "We'll need the
most o' Co. Q to 'tend to them. Here they come."

"Sergeant, what's all this disturbance you're kicking up in camp?" said
Capt. McGillicuddy playfully, as he deployed Co. Q. "Can't you take
a quiet walk out into the country, without stirring up the whole
neighborhood?"

"They seem to've bin at home and expectin' us, Capt," grinned Si, as he
pointed to the augmenting swarm of horsemen.

"There does seem to be a tolerably full house," answered the Captain
with a shrug. "Well, the more the merrier. Boys, shoot down those
fellows who're tearing down the fences. That'll stop any rush on us, and
we'll develop their force."

"It's developing itself purty fast, seems to me. There comes another
rijimint," remarked Si.

The firing grew pretty noisy.

Si was delighted to see how naturally his boys took to their work. After
the first flurry of excitement at confronting the yelling, galloping
horde, they crouched down behind their fence-corners, and loaded and
fired as deliberately as the older men.

"What sort of a breach of the peace is this you are committing, Capt.
McGillicuddy?" asked Col. McBiddle, coming up at the head of the 200th
Ind. "And do you want some accomplices?"

"I believe if you'll give me another company I can make a rush across
there and scatter those fellows," a