alt!"

"This, sir," said a voice, "is General Jackson and his staff."

The officer stammered forth apologies. "It is all right, sir," said the
voice in the darkness. "The cavalry must be more careful, but colonel,
true aristocrats do not curse and swear."

An hour later the column halted in open country. A pleasant farmhouse
with a cool, grassy yard surrounded by an ornamental fence, white paling
gleaming in the waved lights, flung wide its doors to Stonewall Jackson.
The troops bivouacked around, in field and meadow. A rain came up, a
chilly downpour. An aide appeared before the brigade encamped
immediately about the farmhouse. "The general says, sir, that the men
may take the rail fence over there, but the regimental officers are to
see that under no circumstances is the fence about Mrs. Wilson's yard to
be touched."

The night passed. Officers had had a hard day; they slept perhaps
somewhat soundly, wrapped in their oilcloths, in the chilly rain, by the
smallest of sputtering camp-fires. The rain stopped at three o'clock;
the August dawn came up gloriously with a cool freshness. Reveille
sounded. Stonewall Jackson came from the farmhouse, looked about him and
then walked across the grassy yard. A little later five colonels of five
regiments found themselves ordered to report to the general commanding
the brigade.

"Gentlemen, as you came by did you notice the condition of the
ornamental fence about the yard?"

"Not especially, sir."

"I did, sir. One panel is gone. I suppose the men were tempted. It was a
confounded cold rain."

The brigadier pursed his lips. "Well, colonel, you heard the order. All
of you heard the order. I regret to say, so did I. Dog-gone tiredness
and profound slumber are no excuse. You ought--we ought--to have heard
them at the palings. General Jackson has ordered you all under arrest."

"Five of us, sir?"

"Five of you. Damn it, sir, six of us!"

The five colonels looked at one another and looked at their brigadier.
"What would you advise, sir?"

The brigadier was very red. "I have sent one of my staff to Mrs. Wilson,
gentlemen, to enquire the cost of the entire ornamental fence! I'd
advise that we pay, and--if we've got any--pay in gold."

By eight o'clock the column was in motion--a fair day and a fair
country, with all the harvest fields and the deep wooded hills and the
August sky. After the rain the roads were just pleasantly wet; dewdrops
hung on the corn blades, blackber