shine again,
And daylight beaming prove thy dreams are vain,
Wilt thou not, relenting, for thy absent lover sigh?
In thy heart consenting to a prayer gone by!
Nita! Juanita! Let me linger by thy side.
Nita! Juanita! Be my own fair bride."

The mighty chorus sank away and the hills gave it back in echoes until
the last one died.

"It's sung mostly in the South," said Dick to Warner and Pennington.

"True," said Warner, "but before the war songs were not confined to one
section. They were the common property of both. We've as much right to
sing Juanita as the Johnnies have."

All that day they rode and sang, going north toward Halltown, where the
forces of Sheridan were gathering, and the valley, although lone and
desolate, continually unfolded its beauty before them. The mountains
were green near by and blue in the distance, and the fertile floor that
they enclosed, like walls, was cut by many streams. Here, indeed,
was a region that had bloomed before the war, and that would bloom again,
no matter what war might do.

They found inhabited houses now and then, but all the men of military age
were gone away and the old men, the women and the children would answer
nothing. The women were not afraid to tell the Yankees what they thought
of them, and in this war which was never a war on women the troopers
merely laughed, or, if they felt anger, they hid it.

On they went through night and day, and now they drew near to Sheridan.
Scouts in blue met them and the gallant column shook their sabers and
saluted. Yes, it was true, they said, that Sheridan was gathering a
fine army and he and all of his men were eager to march, but Colonel
Hertford's force, sent by General Grant to help, would be welcomed with
shouts. The fame of its three colonels had gone on before.

It was bright noon when they approached the northern end of the valley,
and Dick saw a horseman followed by a group of about twenty men galloping
toward them. The leader was a short, slender man, sitting firmly in his
saddle.

"General Sheridan!" exclaimed Shepard.

Colonel Hertford instantly ordered his trumpeter to sound a signal,
and the troopers, stopping and drawing up in a long line, awaited the
man who was to command them, and who was coming on so fast. Again Dick
examined him closely through his glasses, and he saw the young, tanned
face under the broad brim of his hat, and the keen, flashing eyes.
He noticed also how small he