while. There was lost time
to be made up, and they did not know when they would get another such
chance--the odds were always against it.

"Enough is enough," said Langdon at last. "It took a lot to make enough,
but it's enough. You have to be a soldier, Harry, to appreciate what
it is to eat, sleep and rest. I'm willing to wager my uniform against a
last winter's snowball that we don't get another such meal in a month.
Old Jack won't let us."

"To my mind," said St. Clair, "we're going right into the middle of big
things. We've chased the Yankees out of the mountains into the valley,
and we'll follow hot on their heels. We've already learned enough of
General Jackson to know that he doesn't linger."

"Linger!" exclaimed Langdon indignantly. "Even if there was no fighting
to be done he'd march us from one end of the valley to the other just
to keep us in practice. Hear that bugle! Off we go! Five minutes to get
ready! Or maybe it is only three!"

It was more than five minutes, but not much more, when the whole army
was on the march again, but the foot cavalry forgot to grumble when
they came again into their beloved valley, across which, and up and down
which, they had marched so much.

They threw back their shoulders, their gait became more jaunty and they
burst into cheers, at the sight of the rich rolling country, now so
beautiful in spring's heavy green. Far off the mountains rose, dark
and blue, but they were only the setting for the gem and made it more
precious.

"It's ours," said Sherburne proudly to Harry. "We left it to the Yankees
for a little while, but we've come back to claim it, and if the unbidden
tenant doesn't get out at once we'll put him out. Harry, haven't you got
Virginia kinfolks? We want to adopt you and call you a Virginian."

"Lots of them. My great-grandfather, Governor Ware, was born in
Maryland, but all the people on my mother's side were of Virginia
origin."

"I might have known it. Kentucky is the daughter of Virginia though a
large part of Kentucky takes sides with the Yankees. But that's not your
fault. Remember, for the time being you're a Virginian, one of us by
right of blood and deed."

"Count me among 'em at once," said Harry. He felt a certain pride in
this off-hand but none the less real adoption, because he knew that it
was a great army with which he marched, and it might immortalize itself.

"What's the news, Harry?" asked Sherburne. "You're always near Old Jack,
an