hot. I should
say that despite its cleanly qualities, of which you speak, Frank, my
friend, its power to annoy is unsurpassed. Remember that bath we took in
the creek the night we went to Frankfort. Did you ever before see such
cool running water, and Dickie, old boy, remember how much there was of
it! It was just as deep and cool and fine after we left it."

"George," said Dick, as he wiped his dusty face, "if you say anything
more about the creek and its cool water this army will lose a capable
lieutenant, and it will lose him mighty soon. It will be necessary, too,
to bury him very far from his home in Vermont."

"Keep cool, Dickie boy, and let who will be dusty. Brooks may fail once
in a hundred years in Kentucky, but they haven't failed in a thousand in
Vermont. You need not remind me that the white man has been there only
two or three hundred years. My information comes straight from a
very old Indian chief who was the depository of tribal recollections
absolutely unassailable. The streams even in midsummer come down as full
and cold as ever from the mountains."

"We'll have water and plenty of it in a day or two. The scouts say that
the Confederate force at the springs is not strong enough to withstand
us."

"But General Buell, not knowing exactly what General Bragg intends
with his divided force, has divided his own in order to meet him at all
points."

"Has he done that?" exclaimed Dick aghast. Like other young officers he
felt perfectly competent to criticize anybody.

"He has, and it seems to me that when the enemy divided was the time for
us to unite or remain united. Then we could scoop him up in detail. Why,
Dick, with an army of sixty thousand men or so, made of such material as
ours has shown itself to be, we could surely beat any Southern force in
Kentucky!"

"Especially as we have no Lees and Stonewall Jacksons to fight."

"Maybe General Buell has divided his force in order to obtain plenty of
water," said Pennington. "We fellows ought to be fair to him."

"Perhaps you're right," said Warner, "and you're right when you say we
ought to be fair to him. I know it will be a great relief to General
Buell to find that we three are supporting his management of this army.
Shall I go and tell him, Frank?"

"Not now, but you can a little later on. Suppose you wait until a day or
two after the battle which we all believe is coming."

The three boys were really in high spirits. Little troubled them bu