s the sky so high and so clear.
When you come away from the great plains you feel cooped up anywhere
else."

Pennington spoke with enthusiasm, his nostrils dilating and his eyes
flashing. Dick was impressed.

"When the war's over I'm going out there to see your plains," he said.

"Then you're coming to see me!" exclaimed Pennington, with all the
impulsive warmth of youth. "And George here is coming with you. I won't
show you any mountains like the one over there, but boys, west of the
Platte River, when I was with my father and some other men I watched for
three days a buffalo herd passing. The herd was going north and all
the time it stretched so far from east to west that it sank under each
horizon. There must have been millions of them. Don't you think that was
something worth seeing?"

"We're surely coming," said Dick, "and you be equally sure to have your
buffalo herd ready for us when we come."

"It'll be there."

"Meanwhile, here we are at the Rapidan," said the practical Warner, "and
beyond it is our army. Look at that long line of fires, boys. Aren't
they cheering? A fine big army like ours ought to beat off anything. We
almost held our own with Jackson himself at Cedar Run, and he had two to
one."

"We will win! We're bound to win!" said Dick, with sudden access of
hope. "We'll crush Lee and Jackson, and next summer you and I, George,
will be out on the western plains with Frank, watching the buffalo
millions go thundering by!"

They forded the Rapidan and rejoined their regiment with nothing to
tell. But it was cheerful about the fires. Optimism reigned once more in
the Army of Virginia. McClellan had sent word to Pope that he would have
plenty of soldiers to face the attack that now seemed to be threatened
by the South. Brigades from the Army of the Potomac would make the Army
of Virginia invincible.

Dick having nothing particular to do, sat late with his comrades before
one of the finest of the fires, and he read only cheerful omens in the
flames. It was a beautiful night. The moon seemed large and near, and
the sky was full of dancing stars. In the clear night Dick saw the black
bulk of Clark's Mountain off there against the horizon, but he could not
see what was behind it.

CHAPTER III. BESIDE THE RIVER

Dick was on duty early in the morning when he saw a horseman coming at
a gallop toward the Rapidan. The man was in civilian clothing, but his
figure seemed familiar. The boy raised