had concealed
themselves for the purpose of picking off the Union soldiers.

The firing in the immediate vicinity had diminished, though the din of
battle resounded on both sides. The boys were rather nervous, as men are
when standing idle under fire; but it was the nervousness of restrained
enthusiasm, not of fear, unless it was in the case of invalid Phineas,
and a very few others whose physical health had not been completely
established.

"Well, Somers, my dear boy, how do you get on?" asked Captain de Banyan,
as he sauntered leisurely up to the lieutenant, whose command stood next
to his own.

"First-rate; only I should like to have something a little more active
than standing here."

"It takes considerable experience to enable a man to stand still under
fire. When I was at the battle of Alma, I learned that lesson to a charm.
We stood up for forty-two hours under a fierce fire of grape and
canister, to say nothing of musketry."

"Forty-two hours!" exclaimed Somers. "I should think you would all have
been killed off before that time."

"In our regiment, only one man was killed; and he got asleep, and walked
in his dreams over towards the enemy's line."

"Captain, you can tell a bigger story than any other man in the army,"
said Somers, laughing.

"That's because I have seen more of the world. When you have been about
as much as I have, you will know more about it."

"No doubt of it."

"I should be very happy to be more actively employed just now; but I am
very well contented where I am."

The position they occupied enabled the two officers to see some sharp
fighting along the line. Through an opening at the right, they saw a
rebel regiment, wearing white jackets, or else stripped to their shirts,
march at double-quick, in splendid order, with arms at "right shoulder
shift," to the scene of action. It was probably some volunteer body from
Richmond, whom the ladies of the rebel capital had just dismissed, with
sweet benedictions, to sweep the "foul Yankees" from the face of the
earth. They were certainly a splendid body of men; and the ladies might
well be proud of them. They went into the field in good style, with the
blessings of the fair still lingering fondly in their ears. But one
volley from the veterans of the Army of the Potomac was enough for them,
and they gave way, running off the field in wild disorder, threading
their way in terror through the bushes, every man for himself. It is not
likely