e!"

"Well?"

"Listen! Well, you said--you said you never got scared the ole Rebels
were goin' to win."

"They did win pretty often," said the grandfather. "They won a good many
battles."

"I mean, you said you never got scared they'd win the war."

"No, we were never afraid of that."

"Well, but if they were good men and fought like wildcats, Grandpa, and
kep' winning battles and everything, how could that be? How could you
_help_ bein' scared they'd win the war?"

The grandfather's feeble eyes twinkled brightly. "Why, we _knew_ they
couldn't, Ramsey."

At this, the little vertical shadows on Ramsey's forehead became more
pronounced, for he had succeeded in thinking. "Well, _they_ didn't know
they couldn't, did they?" he argued. "They thought they were goin' to
win, didn't they?"

"Yes, I guess they did. Up till toward the last, I suppose they probably
did. But you see they were wrong."

"Well, but--" Ramsey struggled. "Listen! Listen here, Grandpa! Well,
anyway, if they never got scared _we'd_ win, and nobody got scared
_they'd_ win--well, I don't see--"

"You don't see what?"

But Ramsey found himself unable to continue his concentration; he
slumped down upon the small of his back, and his brow relaxed to its
more comfortable placidity, while his eyes wandered with a new butterfly
fluttering over the irises that bordered the iron picket fence at the
south side of the yard. "Oh, nothin' much," he murmured.

"I see." And his grandfather laughed again. "You mean: If the Rebels
felt just as sure of winning the war as we did, and kept winning battles
why shouldn't we ever have had any doubts that we were going to win?
That's it, isn't it?"

"I guess so, Grandpa."

"Well, I think it was mostly because we were certain that we were
right."

"I see," said Ramsey. "The Rebels knew they were on the side of the
Devil." But at this, the grandfather's laugh was louder than it had been
before, and Ramsey looked hurt. "Well, you can laugh if you want to!" he
objected in an aggrieved voice. "Anyway, the Sunday-school sup'intendent
told us when people knew they were on the Devil's side they always--"

"I dare say, I dare say," the old man interrupted, a little impatiently.
"But in this world mighty few people think they're on the Devil's side,
Ramsey. There was a Frenchman once, in olden times; he said people were
crazy because, though they couldn't even make worms, they believed they
could make gods. And so wh