rther and further away from the beautiful city in which they
had fully expected to be encamped ere this; though they grimly contested
every mile they gave up, bound to sacrifice as few of their heavy guns
as possible.

Another thing staggered the boys when they came to think of it. During
the Civil War in their own country some of the greatest battles then
known to history were fought, and the numbers on both sides did not
really amount to more than two hundred thousand men. Here there were
more than as many million grappling in deadly earnest, supplied with the
most wonderful of modern death-dealing weapons, with engineers highly
educated along the lines of utilizing these engines of wholesale
destruction.

No wonder then the dead and wounded were as the leaves of the forest
when the wind of late October tears them from their hold upon the
branches and scatters them in windrows behind the logs and stumps and in
fence corners.

Rod had some reason to believe that if they were allowed to proceed
forward on this particular day they would presently reach the regiment
in which Andre, sought so earnestly in the interest of his family, had
an humble part. He was determined that should fortune favor them and the
object of their search be accomplished he would listen no longer to the
pleadings of Josh, but strike for Paris, so as to get away from this
war-blasted country as quickly as possible.

It was beginning to pall upon Rod. After all he was only a boy, and had
never been accustomed to such terrible sights as of late were being
continually thrust before him. Nature has its limits, and Rod believed
he was now very close to the end of his endurance.

"As it is, what we've run across will haunt us the rest of our lives,"
he was telling himself as he led the way along the difficult road; "and
for one I'm longing to wake up again, and find myself wandering by the
peaceful waters of the river bordering Garland in the far-distant
States. And here's hoping that this may turn out to be our very last day
in the track of the battling armies."

The dust was thick in places, partly on account of the season of the
year, and then again because of the unwonted use to which that
particular thoroughfare had been put of late. When several hundred
thousand feet have tramped along in almost endless procession, and then
innumerable vehicles of every known description, not to mention heavy
artillery, some of it drawn by traction engines,