at you had been with Jackson, but I had no
way of knowing until a moment ago that you were yet alive."

"Nor I you, Dick. I thought you were in the west."

"I was, but after Shiloh, some of us came east to help. It seemed after
the Seven Days that we were needed more here than in the west."

"You never said truer words, Dick. They'll need you and many more
thousands like you. Why, Dick, we're not led here by a man, we're led
by a thunderbolt. I'm on his staff, I see him every day. He talks to
me, and I talk to him. I tell you, Dick, it's a wonderful thing to serve
such a genius. You can't beat him! His kind appears only a few times in
the ages. He always knows what's to be done and he does it. Even if your
generals knew what ought to be done, most likely they'd do something
else."

Harry's face glowed with enthusiasm as he spoke of his hero, and Dick,
looking at him, shook his head sadly.

"I'm afraid that what you say is true for the present at least, Harry,"
he said. "You beat us now here in the east, but don't forget that we're
winning in the west. And don't forget that here in the east even, you
can never wear us out. We'll be coming, always coming."

"All right, old Sober Sides, we won't quarrel about it. We'll let time
settle it. Here come some friends of mine whom I want you to know.
Curious that you should meet them at such a time."

Two other young lieutenants in gray uniforms at the head of burial
parties came near in the course of their work, and Harry called to them.

"Tom! Arthur! A moment, please! This is my cousin, Dick Mason, a Yankee,
though I think he's honest in his folly. Dick, this is Arthur St. Clair,
and this is Tom Langdon, both friends of mine from South Carolina."

They shook hands warmly. There was no animosity between them. Dick
liked the looks and manners of Harry's friends. He could have been their
friend, too.

"Harry has talked about you often," said Happy Tom Langdon. "Says you're
a great scholar, and a good fellow, all right every way, except the
crack in your head that makes you a Yankee. I hope you won't get hurt in
this unpleasantness, and when our victorious army comes into Washington
we'll take good care of you and release you soon."

Dick smiled. He liked this youth who could keep up the spirit of fun
among such scenes.

"Don't you pay any attention to Langdon, Mr. Mason," said St. Clair. "If
he'd only fight as well and fast as he talks there'd be no need for the
res