t that we've worn ourselves out, fighting. Besides, the spring
is here, a lot of us are homesick, and it's time to put in the crops."

"I think that's a good way to leave it," said Dick. "Do you know where
my cousin, Harry Kenton, is?"

"I saw him this morning," replied St. Clair, "and I can assure you that
he's taken no harm. He's riding ahead of the commander-in-chief, and he
should be here soon."

A trumpet sounded and they separated, returning respectively to their own
lines. Standing on a low hill, Dick saw Harry Kenton and Dalton dismount
and then stand on one side, as if in expectancy. Dick knew for whom they
were waiting, and his own heart beat hard. A great hum and murmur arose,
when the gray figure of an elderly man riding the famous war horse,
Traveler, appeared.

It was Lee, and in this moment, when his heart must have bled, his
bearing was proud and high. He was worn somewhat, and he had lost
strength from the great privations and anxieties of the retreat, but he
held himself erect. He was clothed in a fine new uniform, and he wore
buckled at his side a splendid new sword, recently sent to him as a
present.

Near by stood a farm house belonging to Wilmer McLean, but, Grant not yet
having come, the Southern commander-in-chief dismounted, and, as the air
was close and hot, he remained a little while under the shade of an apple
tree, the famous apple tree of Appomattox, around which truth and legend
have played so much.

Dick was fully conscious of everything now. He realized the greatness of
the moment, and he would not miss any detail of any movement on the part
of the principals. It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon when
Grant and his staff rode up, the Union leader still wearing his plain
blue blouse, no sword at his side, his shoulder straps alone signifying
his rank.

The two generals who had faced each other with such resolution in that
terrible conflict shook hands, and Dick saw them talking pleasantly as
if they were chance acquaintances who had just met once more. Presently
they went into the McLean house, several of General Grant's staff
accompanying him, but Lee taking with him only Colonel Thomas Marshall.

Before the day was over Dick learned all that had occurred inside that
unpretentious but celebrated farm house. The two great commanders,
at first did not allude to the civil war, but spoke of the old war in
Mexico, where Lee, the elder, had been General Winfield Sc