t the rebels git the drop on us when we come to that crick;
that we wouldn't see nothin' of 'em--nothin' but a low bank, behind
which they wuz hid, with their guns pokin' through the brush, but the
moment we see the bank breastwork throwed up along the crick we must let
into it. That's what it's for. The rebels throwed it up to hide behind.
Them men said that the brush back there was as full o' rebels as a hound
o' fleas, and that we must let into 'em the moment we see the bank, or
they'd git the drop on us. They had an awful time there theirselves, and
they gave us all the catridges they had left for us to use."

"You little numbskulls," said Si; "why didn't you come to use and tell
us about this?"

"They told us to be partickeler and say nothin' to you. Your stayin'
back there in the car showed that you didn't know nothin' about it; you
hadn't bin down this way for a long time and wasn't up to the latest
improvements, and you wuz jest as like as not to run us into a hornets'
nest; that you wuzzent our real officers, anyway, and it didn't much
matter to you what happened to us."

"Our own sins are comin' back on us. Shorty," remarked Si. "This is a
judgment on you for the way you've filled up recruits at every chance
you got."

"'Taint on me," said Shorty, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm not in
command. You are."

"I shall be mighty glad when we git this outfit to Chattanoogy," sighed
Si. "I'm gittin' older every minute that I have 'em on my hands."

CHAPTER XIX. THE FIRST SCRAPE

A LITTLE INITIATORY SKIRMISH WITH THE GUERRILLAS.

THE train passed Shelbyville in the course of the afternoon and halted
on a switch. Tired of reading, Si was standing at the door of the car,
looking out over the country and trying to identify places they had
passed or camped at during the campaign of the previous Summer. Suddenly
his far-seeing eyes became fixed on the intervals in the trees on the
farthest hill-top. Without turning his head he called Shorty in a tone
which made that worthy lose all interest in his inevitable pack of cards
and spring to his side. Without speaking, Si pointed to the sky-line of
the eminence, against which moving figures sketched themselves.

"Guerrillas," said Shorty.

Si nodded affirmatively.

"Skeetin' acrost the country to jump this train or some other,"
continued Shorty.

"This one, most likely," answered Si.

"Yes," accorded Shorty, with an estimating glance at the direction of
the ra