the
truth. I am in the middle of life and I realize suddenly that in all the
years I have lived I have met but few thinkers, certainly not more than
half a dozen, perhaps not more than three or four."

He put his cigar back in his mouth and the two puffed simultaneously and
with precision, blowing out the fine, delicate rings of smoke at exactly
the same time. Gentlemen of the old school they were, even then, but
Harry recognized, too, that Colonel Leonidas Talbot had spoken the
weighty truth. Stonewall Jackson was a thinker, and thinkers are never
numerous in the world. He resolved to think more for himself if he
could, and he sat there trying to think, while he absently regarded the
two colonels.

Colonel Leonidas Talbot, after two minutes perhaps, took the cigar from
his mouth once more and said to Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire:

"Fine cigars the Yankees make, Hector."

"Quite true, Leonidas. One of the best I have ever smoked."

"Not more than a dozen left."

"Then we must get more."

"But how?"

"Stonewall Jackson will think of a way."

Harry, despite his respect for them, was compelled to laugh. But the two
colonels laughed with him.

"The words of my friend Leonidas have been proved true within a few
minutes," said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire. "In doubt we
turned at once and with involuntary impulse to Stonewall Jackson to
think of a way. He has impressed us, as he has impressed the privates,
with his intellectual power."

Harry sat with them nearly an hour. He had not only respect but
affection also for them. Old-fashioned they might be in some ways, but
they were able military men, thoroughly alert, and he knew that he could
learn much from them. When he left them he returned to General Jackson
and a few more days of waiting followed.

Winter was now wholly gone and spring, treacherous at first, was
becoming real and reliable. Reports heavy and ominous were coming from
McClellan. He would disembark and march up the peninsula on Richmond
with a vast and irresistible force. Jackson might be drawn off from the
valley to help Johnston in the defense of the capital. But Banks with
his great army would then march down it as if on parade.

Harry heard one morning that a new man was put in command of the
Southern forces in Northern Virginia. Robert Edward Lee was his name,
and it was a good name, too. He was the son of that famous Light Horse
Harry Lee who was a favorite of Washingto