on.

All this expanse he must traverse on foot before arriving at that great
river highway, by means of which he hoped to reach his destination, a
thousand miles and more farther still to the West. But the new manhood
had been born in Guilford Duncan's soul, and he was no more appalled by
the difficult problem that he must now face than he had been by the fire
of the enemy when battle was on. "Hard work," he reflected, "is the
daily duty of the soldier of peace, just as hard fighting as that of the
warrior."

Strapping his saddle and bridle on his back he took his bacon and his
salt bag in one hand and his bag of meal in the other. Thus heavily
burdened he set out on foot down the mountain.

"At any rate my load will grow lighter," he reflected, "every time I
eat, and I'll sell the saddle and bridle at the first opportunity. I'll
make the Ohio River in spite of all."

IV

A PRIVATE IN THE ARMY OF WORK

It was a truly terrible tramp that the young man had before him, but he
did not shrink. So long as his provisions lasted he pushed forward,
stopping only in the woodlands or by the wayside for sleep and for
eating. By the time that his provisions were exhausted he had passed the
Valley and had crossed the crest of the Alleghenies.

He was now in a country that had not been wasted by war, a country in
which men of every class seemed to be reasonably prosperous and hard at
work.

There, by way of replenishing his commissariat, he sold the saddle he
was carrying on his back, and thus lightened his load.

Fortunately it was a specially good saddle, richly mounted with silver,
and otherwise decorated to please the fancy of the dandy Federal officer
from whose dead horse Duncan had captured it after its owner had been
left stark upon the field in the Wilderness. It brought him now a good
price in money, and to this the purchaser generously added a little
store of provisions, including, for immediate use, some fresh meat--the
first that had passed Duncan's lips for more months past than he could
count upon the fingers of one hand.

A little later the young man sold his pistols, but as he pushed onward
toward the Ohio River he found that both traveling and living in a
prosperous country were far more expensive than traveling and living in
war-desolated and still moneyless Virginia.

His little store of funds leaked out of his pockets so fast that,
economize as he might, he found it necessary to ask for work