eager to hear more, and,
when the opportunity presented itself, he questioned the sergeant
privately.

"What do we hear from Petersburg?" he asked. "Is the deadlock there
broken?"

"Not yet, sir," replied the sergeant. "The winter being so very severe
the troops are not able to do much. General Lee still holds his lines."

"I suppose that General Grant doesn't care to risk another Cold Harbor,
but what has been done here in the Valley of Virginia should enable him
to turn Lee's flank in the spring."

"I take it that you're right, sir. General Lee is a hard nut to crack,
as we all know, but his army is wearing away. In the spring the shell of
the nut will be so thin that we'll smash it."

The column, after its exploit, reported to Sheridan at Winchester,
the little city around which and through which the war rolled for four
long years, and where two great commanders, one of the gray and the other
of the blue, had their headquarters at times. But Colonel Winchester and
his young staff officers rode through streets that were faced by closed
shutters and windows. Nowhere was the hostility to the Northern troops
more bitter and intense than in Winchester, the beloved city of the great
Stonewall which had seen with its own eyes so many of his triumphs.

Dick and his comrades had learned long since not to speak to the women
and girls for fear of their sharp tongues, and in his heart he could
not blame them. Youth did not keep him from having a philosophical and
discerning mind, and he knew that in the strongest of people the emotions
often triumph over logic and reason. Warner's little algebra was all
right, when the question was algebraic, but sentiment and passion had
a great deal to do with the affairs of the world, and, where they were
concerned, the book was of no value at all.

Dick's new rank of captain was conferred upon him by General Sheridan
himself, and it was accompanied by a compliment which though true made
him blush in his modesty. A few days later Warner received the same rank
for his achievement in driving away Slade, and it was conferred upon
Pennington too for general excellence. The three were supremely happy
and longed for more enemies to conquer, but a long period of comparative
idleness ensued. The winter continued of unexampled severity, and they
spent most of the time in camp, although they did not waste it. Several
books of mathematics came from the North to Warner and he spent ma