k-up fellows, too--gentlemen and
such.--Yah!"

The brigade moved on as had done the Stonewall. There grew in the wood a
sound. "What's that?" Scrambling up, he went forward between the trees
and presently came full upon a narrow wood road, with a thin growth of
forest upon the other side. The sound increased. Steve knew it well. He
stamped upon the moss with the foot that hurt him least. "Artillery
coming!--and all them damned gunners with eyes like lynxes--"

He crossed the road and the farther strip of woods. Behind him the
approaching wheels rumbled loudly; before him a narrow lane stretched
through a ploughed field, to a grassy dooryard and a small house. On the
edge of the wood was a mass of elderbush just coming into bloom. He
worked his way into the centre of this, squatted down and regarded the
house from between the green stems. Smoke rose from the chimney. "It
must be near eleven o'clock," thought Steve. "She's getting dinner."

Behind him, through the wood, on toward Middletown rumbled the passing
battery. The heavy sound brought a young woman to the door. She stood
looking out, her hands shading her eyes; then, the train disappearing,
went back to her work. Steve waited until the sound was almost dead,
then left the elder, went up the lane and made his appearance before the
open door. The woman turned from the hearth where she was baking bread.
"Good-morning, sir."

"Morning, miss," said Steve. "Could you spare a poor sick soldier a bite
to eat?"

He ended with a hollow groan and the weight of his body against the
lintel. The young woman dragged forward a split-bottomed armchair. "Sit
right down there! Of course I'll give you something to eat. It ain't
anything catching, is it?"

Steve sank into the chair. "It was pneumonia, and my strength ain't come
back yet."

"I only asked because I have to think of my baby." She glanced toward a
cradle by the window. "Pneumonia is dreadful weakening! How come they
let you march?"

"Why, I didn't," said Steve, "want to be left behind. I wanted to be in
the fight with the rest of the boys. So the captain said, says he,
'Well, you can try it, for we need all the good fighters we've got, but
if you find you're too weak to go on, fall out! Maybe some good Seraphim
will give you 'commodation--'"

"I can't give you 'commodation, because there's just the baby and
myself, James being with Ashby. But I can give you dinner (I haven't got
much, but what I've got you're