the
pillar. She took off her sunbonnet. "Violetta learned to do a heap of
things while I was down t' Richmond. I took a heap of them back, too,
but somehow I've got more time than I used to have. Somehow I jest
wander round--"

Tom took a tin box from beside the tobacco box. "'T would be awful if
the letter didn't come once't every ten days or two weeks! Reckon I'd go
plumb crazy, an' so would Sairy--"

Sairy turned the garment she was patching. "Sho! I wouldn't go crazy.
What's the use when it's happening all the time? I ain't denying that
most of the light would go out of things. Stop imaginin' an' read
Christianna what he says about furin' parts."

"After Gaines's Mill it was twelve days," said Tom, "an' the twelfth day
we didn't say a word, only Sairy read the Bible. An' now he's well and
rejoined at Leesburg."

He cleared his throat. "DEAR AUNT SAIRY AND TOM:--It's fine to get back
to the Army! It's an Army that you can love. I do love it. But I love
Thunder Run and the School House and Tom and Sairy Cole, too, and
sometimes I miss them dreadfully! I rejoined at Leesburg. The 65th--I
can't speak of the 65th--you know why. It breaks my heart. But it's
reorganized. The boys were glad to see me, and I was glad to see them.
Tell Christianna that Billy's all right. He's sergeant now, and he does
fine. And Dave's all right, too, and the rest of the Thunder Run men.
The War's done a heap for Mathew Coffin. It's made a real man of him.
Tom, I wish you could have seen us fording the Potomac. It was like a
picture book. All a pretty silver morning, with grey plovers wheeling
overhead, and the Maryland shore green and sweet, and the water cool to
your waist, and the men laughing and calling and singing 'Maryland, my
Maryland!' Fitzhugh Lee was ahead with the cavalry. It was pretty to see
the horses go over, and the blessed guns that we know and love, every
iron man of them, and all the white covered wagons. Our division crossed
last, Old Jack at the head. When we came up from the river into Maryland
we turned toward Frederick. The country's much like our own and the
people pleasant enough. You know we've got the Maryland Line, and a
number besides. They're fine men, a little dashing, but mighty steady,
too. They've expressed themselves straight along as positively certain
that all Maryland would rise and join us. There's a line of the song,
you know:--

"Huzzah! huzzah!
She breathes, she burns,