re back?" inquired the boy, who evidently wanted to know
whether there were many more troops coming forward. Carlyle might envy
such terseness of language.

"No, not many. Did many pass here yesterday?"

"No, not so very many. But last night there was quite a _drove of
'em_."

This language was either not complimentary to the discipline of the New
York militia while on the march, or not complimentary to the
school-masters of Franklin County, Pa. Imagine such a conversation in a
rural district of Massachusetts!

As an offset to this promising lad, he heard of another who was
chopping wood by the road-side when the rebel army was passing. One of
the rascally tatterdemalions coming close to him made a grab for his
hat--it was a fashion they had of helping themselves to the head-gear
of everybody they passed--but missed it. The boy turned, raised his
axe, and "dared" the rebel "to try that again!"

From Altodale the column followed the course of the Little Antietam in
a south-westerly direction to Waynesboro', and came to camp two miles
beyond on the Waynesboro' and Hagerstown pike. The day was pleasantly
cool, and the march of eleven miles was made in comparative comfort,
notwithstanding the roads were heavy and our wet luggage and clothes
added greatly to our burden, As to rations we were learning to get
along with the scantiest supply, like the horse of the enterprising
economist which was trained to subsist at last on one oat a day, and
was on the point of getting along on nothing when he unexpectedly gave
up the ghost. Whether our lot would have been similar had our term of
service continued a few days longer can never be positively known.

At Waynesboro' we fell in with the Sixth Corps of the army, which, as
before mentioned, had been despatched by General Meade from the field
of Gettysburg, on the 5th instant, in pursuit of the enemy by the
Fairfield Road--their line of march being thus nearly parallel to ours.
Here we were, then, in the midst of the world-renowned Army of the
Potomac--in fact incorporated with it, being now subject to the orders,
as we understood, of that gallant soldier, Major-General Sedgwick, who
fought his corps so splendidly at Fredericksburg in Hooker's
unfortunate Virginia campaign. We felt a genuine soldierly pride in
such an association. We were now the comrades in arms of men whose
business was fighting, and who attended to their business like men; and
them we trusted to show us the