's them gallus lumbermen from some o' the Maine
regiments clearing the ground. They're some with the axe.
Yonder's the new fort the Forty Thieves is building."

"The--what?" asked Ailsa, perplexed.

"Fortieth New York Infantry, ma'am. The army calls 'em the Forty
Thieves, they're that bright at foraging, flag or no flag!
Chickens, pigs, sheep--God knows they're a light-fingered lot; but
their colonel is one of the best officers in the land. Why
shouldn't they be a good fat regiment, with their haversacks full
o' the best, when half the army feeds on tack and sow-belly, and
the other half can't git that!"

The driver, evidently nearing his destination, became
confidentially loquacious.

"Yonder's Fort Elsworth, ladies! It's hid by the forest, but it's
there, you bet! If you ladies could climb up one o' them big
pines, you'd see the line of forts and trenches in a half-moon from
the Chain Bridge at Georgetown to Alexandria, and you'd see the
seminary in its pretty park, and, belike, Gineral McClellan in the
chapel cupola, a-spying through his spy-glass what deviltry them
rebel batteries is hatching on the hill over yonder."

"Are the rebels _there_?"

"Yes'm. Little Mac, he lets 'em stay there till he's good 'n'
ready to gobble 'em."

Ailsa and Letty stared at the bluish hill, the top of which just
showed above the forest.

A young soldier of engineers, carrying a bundle of axes, came along
the road, singing in a delightful tenor voice the hymn, "Arise, My
Soul, Arise!" He glanced admiringly at Ailsa, then at Letty, as
the ambulance drove by, but his song did not falter; and far away
they heard him singing gloriously through the autumn woods.

Presently a brigade medical officer rode up, signalling the driver
to stop, with his gloved hand.

"Where do you come from, ladies--the General Hospital at
Alexandria?"

Ailsa explained.

"That's good," he said emphatically; "the brigade hospitals are
short handed. We need experienced nurses badly." And he pointed
across the fields toward a hillside where a group of farm-houses
and barns stood. A red flag napped darkly against the sky from the
cupola of a barn.

"Is that the hospital?" asked Ailsa, noticing some ambulances
parked near by.

"Yes, madam. You will report to Dr. West." He looked at them for a
second, shook his head thoughtfully, then saluted and wheeled his
horse.

"Pass on, Sanitary!" he added to the driver.

There was a deeply rutte