es of mutton
were roasted in the tin kitchens. Everybody was "rushing."

The boys were told that they might go to see the soldiers, and as they
had to get off long before daylight, they went to bed early, and left
all "the other boys"--that is, Peter and Cole and other colored
children--squatting about the fires and trying to help the cooks to
pile on wood.

It was hard to leave the exciting scene.

They were very sleepy the next morning; indeed, they seemed scarcely
to have fallen asleep when Lucy Ann shook them; but they jumped up
without the usual application of cold water in their faces, which Lucy
Ann so delighted to make; and in a little while they were out in the
yard, where Balla was standing holding three horses,--their mother's
riding-horse; another with a side-saddle for their Cousin Belle, whose
brother was in the regiment; and one for himself,--and Peter and Cole
were holding the carriage-horses for the boys, and several other men
were holding mules.

Great hampers covered with white napkins were on the porch, and the
savory smell decided the boys not to eat their breakfast, but to wait
and take their share with the soldiers.

The roads were so bad that the carriage could not go; and as the boys'
mother wished to get the provisions to the soldiers before they broke
camp, they had to set out at once. In a few minutes they were all in
the saddle, the boys and their mother and Cousin Belle in front, and
Balla and the other servants following close behind, each holding
before him a hamper, which looked queer and shadowy as they rode on in
the darkness.

The sky, which was filled with stars when they set out, grew white as
they splashed along mile after mile through the mud. Then the road
became clearer; they could see into the woods, and the sky changed to
a rich pink, like the color of peach-blossoms. Their horses were
covered with mud up to the saddle-skirts. They turned into a lane only
half a mile from the bridge, and, suddenly, a bugle rang out down in
the wooded bottom below them, and the boys hardly could be kept from
putting their horses to a run, so fearful were they that the soldiers
were leaving, and that they should not see them. Their mother,
however, told them that this was probably the reveille, or
"rising-bell," of the soldiers. She rode on at a good sharp canter,
and the boys were diverting themselves over a discussion as to who
would act the part of Lucy Ann in waking the regiment of s