treet. There was hot fighting through the place,
then the enemy, rallied here, broke again and dispersed to the westward.
The grey soldiers swept through the place, and the people with tears and
laughter cried them welcome. On the porch of a comfortable house stood a
comfortable, comely matron, pale with ardent patriotism, the happy tears
running down her cheeks. Parched as were their throats the troops found
voice to cheer, as always, when they passed through these Valley towns.
They waved their colours vigorously; their ragged bit of a band played
"Old Virginny never tire." The motherly soul on the porch, unconscious
of self, uplifted, tremulous with emotion, opened wide her arms, "All of
you run here and kiss me!"

Late afternoon came and the army yet skirmished, marched, marched,
skirmished on the Valley pike. The heat decreased, but dust and thirst
remained. Fatigue was the abominable thing. "Gawd!" thought Steve. "I
can't stand it any longer. I got ter quit, and ef I could shoot that
lieutenant, I would." The man whom the closing of the ranks had brought
upon his left began to speak in a slow, refined voice. "There was a
book published in England a year or so ago. It brings together old
observations, shoots and theories, welds them, and produces a Thor's
hammer that's likely to crack some heads. Once upon a time, it seems, we
went on four feet. It's a pity to have lost so valuable a faculty. Oh,
Jupiter! we are tired!"

A man behind put in his word. "To-morrow's Sunday. Two Sundays ago we
were at Meechum's River, and since then we've marched most two hundred
miles, and fought two battles and a heap of skirmishes! I reckon
there'll be a big fight to-morrow, with Old Jack jerking his hand in the
air as they say he's been doing! 'N all to the sound of church bells!
Oh, Moses, I'm tired!"

At sunset the bugles blew halt. The men dropped down on the tarnished
earth, on the vast, spectacular road to Winchester. They cared not so
much for supper, faint as they were; they wanted sleep. Supper they
had--all that could be obtained from the far corners of haversacks and
all that, with abounding willingness, the neighbouring farmhouses could
scrape together--but when it came to sleep--. With nodding heads the men
waited longingly for roll call and tattoo, and instead there came an
order from the front. "_A night march!_ O Lord, have mercy, for
Stonewall Jackson never does." _Fall in! Fall in! Column Forward!_

When they c