water. When Chad came back, one giant was
drawing on the other a pair of socks. The other was still silent and
had his face turned the other way. Looking up, Jake met Chad's
surprised gaze with a grin.

A day later, Dan came to his senses. A tent was above him, a heavy
blanket was beneath him and there were clothes on his body that felt
strangely fresh and clean. He looked up to see Chad's face between the
flaps of the tent.

"D'you do this?"

"That's all right," said Chad. "This war is over." And he went away to
let Dan think it out. When he came again, Dan held out his hand
silently.

CHAPTER 28.

PALL-BEARERS OF THE LOST CAUSE

The rain was falling with a steady roar when General Hunt broke camp a
few days before. The mountain-tops were black with thunderclouds, and
along the muddy road went Morgan's Men--most of them on mules which had
been taken from abandoned wagons when news of the surrender
came--without saddles and with blind bridles or rope halters--the rest
slopping along through the yellow mud on foot--literally--for few of
them had shoes; they were on their way to protect Davis and join
Johnston, now that Lee was no more. There was no murmuring, no
faltering, and it touched Richard Hunt to observe that they were now
more prompt to obedience, when it was optional with them whether they
should go or stay, than they had ever been in the proudest days of the
Confederacy.

Threatened from Tennessee and cut off from Richmond, Hunt had made up
his mind to march eastward to join Lee, when the news of the surrender
came. Had the sun at that moment dropped suddenly to the horizon from
the heaven above them, those Confederates would have been hardly more
startled or plunged into deeper despair. Crowds of infantry threw down
their arms and, with the rest, all sense of discipline was lost. Of the
cavalry, however, not more than ten men declined to march south, and
out they moved through the drenching rain in a silence that was broken
only with a single cheer when ninety men from another Kentucky brigade
joined them, who, too, felt that as long as the Confederate Government
survived, there was work for them to do. So on they went to keep up the
struggle, if the word was given, skirmishing, fighting and slipping
past the enemies that were hemming them in, on with Davis, his cabinet,
and General Breckinridge to join Taylor and Forrest in Alabama. Across
the border of South Carolina, an irate old lady upbraide