uld go
with his State and lead battalions to victory. The "battalion" in this
instance consisted of a little squad of young fellows of his own age,
mostly pilots and schoolmates, including Sam Bowen, Ed Stevens, and Ab
Grimes, about a dozen, all told. They organized secretly, for the Union
militia was likely to come over from Illinois any time and look up any
suspicious armies that made an open demonstration. An army might lose
enthusiasm and prestige if it spent a night or two in the calaboose.

So they met in a secret place above Bear Creek Hill, just as Tom
Sawyer's red-handed bandits had gathered so long before (a good many of
them were of the same lawless lot), and they planned how they would sell
their lives on the field of glory, just as Tom Sawyer's band might have
done if it had thought about playing "War," instead of "Indian" and
"Pirate" and "Bandit" with fierce raids on peach orchards and melon
patches. Then, on the evening before marching away, they stealthily
called on their sweethearts--those who had them did, and the others
pretended sweethearts for the occasion--and when it was dark and
mysterious they said good-by and suggested that maybe those girls would
never see them again. And as always happens in such a case, some of them
were in earnest, and two or three of the little group that slipped away
that night never did come back, and somewhere sleep in unmarked graves.

The "two Sams"--Sam Bowen and Sam Clemens--called on Patty Gore and
Julia Willis for their good-by visit, and, when they left, invited the
girls to "walk through the pickets" with them, which they did as far
as Bear Creek Hill. The girls didn't notice any pickets, because the
pickets were away calling on girls, too, and probably wouldn't be back
to begin picketing for some time. So the girls stood there and watched
the soldiers march up Bear Creek Hill and disappear among the trees.

The army had a good enough time that night, marching through the brush
and vines toward New London, though this sort of thing grew rather
monotonous by morning. When they took a look at themselves by daylight,
with their nondescript dress and accoutrements, there was some thing
about it all which appealed to one's sense of humor rather than to
his patriotism. Colonel Ralls, of Ralls County, however, received them
cordially and made life happier for them with a good breakfast and some
encouraging words. He was authorized to administer the oath of office,
h