on't. Harry has a generous and noble nature. But he wouldn't stand
being patronized, merely because he happened to be on the beaten side."

"I shouldn't think of trying to do such a thing. Now, we've seen enough,
and I think we'd better go back to the colonels, with our news."

They rode through the woods again, and, for most of the distance, there
was no sound from the marching troops. The wonderful feeling of peace
returned. The sky was as blue and soft as velvet. The great stars
glittered and danced, and the wind among the rustling leaves was like the
soft singing of a violin. At one point they crossed a little brook which
ran so swiftly down among the trees that it was a foam of water. They
dismounted, drank hastily, and then let the horses take their fill.

"I like these hills and forests and their clear waters," said Dick,
"and judging by the appearance it must be a fine country to which we're
coming."

"It is. It's something like your Kentucky Blue Grass, although it's
smaller and it's hemmed in by sharper and bolder mountains. But I should
say that the Shenandoah Valley is close to a hundred and twenty miles
long, and from twenty-five to forty miles wide, not including its spur,
the Luray Valley, west of the Massanuttons."

"As large as one of the German Principalities."

"And as fine as any of them."

"It's where Stonewall Jackson made that first and famous campaign of his."

"And it's lucky for us that we don't have to face him there now. Early
is a good general, they say, but he's no Stonewall Jackson."

"And we're to be led by Sheridan. I think he saved us at Perryville in
Kentucky, but they say he's become a great cavalry commander. Do you
know him, Mr. Shepard?"

"Well. A young man, and a little man. Why, you'd overtop him more than
half a head, Mr. Mason, but he has a great soul for battle. He's the
kind that will strike and strike, and keep on striking, and that's the
kind we need now."

"Here are our own men just ahead. I see the three colonels riding
together."

They went forward swiftly and told what they had seen, Shepard also
describing the nature of the ground ahead, and the manner in which the
two roads converged.

"Which column do you think will reach the junction first?" asked Colonel
Hertford.

"They'll come to it about the same time," replied Shepard.

"And so a clash is unavoidable. It was not our purpose to fight before
we reached General Sheridan, but sin