wasn't as big a battle as some
of the others, but Dick, for those mad three hours it seemed that all
the demons of death were turned loose."

"It certainly looked like it, George, you stiff old Vermonter, and I
don't forget that you came to save me."

"Shut up about that, or I'll hit you over the head with the butt of my
pistol. I merely paid back, though I only paid about half of what I
was owing to you. The chance luckily came sooner than I had hoped. But,
Dick, what a morning to follow Christmas."

A chilly rain was pouring down. A cold fog was rising from the
Cumberland, wrapping the town in mists. It was certainly a dreary time
in which to march to battle, and the young soldiers rising in the gloom
of the dawn and starting amid such weather were depressed.

"Pennington," said Warner, "will you help me in a request to our
Kentucky friend to join us in three cheers for the Sunny South, the edge
of which he has the good fortune to inhabit? I haven't seen the real sun
for about a month, and I suppose that's why they call it sunny, and I'm
informed that this big river, the Cumberland, often freezes over, which
I suppose is the reason why they call it Southern. I hear, too, that
people often freeze to death in North Georgia, which is further south
than this. After this bit of business is over I'm going to forbid winter
campaigns in the south."

"It does get mighty cold," said Dick. "You see we're not really a
southern people. We just lie south of the northern states and in
Kentucky, at least, we have a lot of cold weather. Why, I've seen it
twenty-three degrees below zero in the southern part of the state, and
it certainly can get cold in Tennessee, too."

"I believe I'd rather have it than this awful rain," said Pennington. "I
don't seem to get used to these cold soakings."

"Good-bye, Nashville," said Dick, turning about. "I don't know when
we will have to come back, and if we do I don't know what will have
happened before then. Good-bye, Nashville. I regret your roofs and your
solid walls, and your dry tents and floors."

"But we're going forth to fight. Don't forget that, Dick. Remember how
in Virginia we pined for battle, and the use of our superior numbers.
Anyhow Rosecrans is going out to look for the enemy, but all the same,
and between you and me, Dick, I wish it was Grant who was leading us. I
saw a copy of the New York Times a while back, and some lines in it are
haunting me. Here they are:

"B