men, cutting the leaves as it passed.

"Too high," laughed Gray, coolly.

"Halt!" come the command, which John Winch, for one, obeyed with amazing
promptness.

"Hallo, Jack!" said Ellis; "who taught you to halt before the word is
given?"

"Are they going to keep us standing here all day?" said Jack, presently.

"He's as wide awake now to be on the move as he was to stop," laughed
Harris.

"Well," said Jack, nervously, "who likes to stand still and be shot at?"

"There's no shooting at us," replied Harris. "When it comes to that,
we'll see the fun you talk about."

Fun! Jack's countenance looked like any thing but fun just then.

He gained some confidence by observing the officers coolly giving their
orders, and the men coolly executing them, as if nothing of importance
had happened, or was expected to happen.

Captain Edney deployed his company, pressing forward into the swamp.
Bushes and fallen logs impeded their progress; the mud and water were in
places leg-deep; and the men were permitted to pick their way as best
they could. Suddenly out of a thicket a bullet came whizzing. Another and
another followed. One tore the bark from a tree close by Captain Edney's
head.

"Keep cool, boys!" he said; "and aim low."

He then gave the order, "Commence firing!" and the front rank men,
halting, poured their volley into the thicket--their first shot at the
enemy. Whilst they were reloading, the second rank advanced and delivered
their fire.

"Don't waste a shot, my brave fellows!" cried the captain. "Fire wherever
you see signs of a rebel. Always aim at _something_."

This last order was a very useful one; for many, in the excitement of
coming for the first time under fire, were inclined to let off their
pieces at random in the air; and the deliberation required to take aim,
if only at a bush behind which a rebel might be concealed, had an
excellent effect in quieting the nerves.

Yet some needed no such instruction. Atwater was observed to load and
fire with as steady a hand and as serene a countenance as if he had been
practising at a target. Others were equally calm and determined. There
were some, however, even of the brave, who, from constitutional
excitability, and not from any cowardice of spirit, exhibited symptoms of
nervousness. Their cheeks paled and their hands shook. But, the momentary
tremor past, these men become perhaps the most resolute and efficient of
all.

Such a one was Frank; who, thoug