Part 17 (2/2)

”But you ought to. They need it.”

d.i.c.k laughed.

”Frank,” he said, ”I give you your own advice to me. Don't argue with him. With him the best proof that he's always right is because he thinks he is.”

”I think clearly and directly, which can be said of very few of my friends,” rejoined Warner.

Then all three of them laughed and lay down again, resting their heads on soft lumps of turf.

They were under the boughs of a fine oak, on which the leaves were yet thick. Birds, hidden among the leaves, began to sing, and the three, astonished, raised themselves up again. It was a chorus, beautiful and startling, and many other soldiers listened to the sound, so unlike that which they had been hearing all day.

”Strange, isn't it?” said Pennington.

”But fine to hear,” said Warner.

”Likely they were in the tree this morning when the battle began,” said d.i.c.k, ”and the cannon and the rifles frightened 'em so much that they stayed close within the leaves. Now they're singing with joy, because it's all over.”

”A good guess, I think, d.i.c.k,” said Warner, ”but isn't it beautiful at such a time and such a place? How these little fellows must be swelling their throats! I don't believe they ever sang so well before.”

”I didn't think today that I'd be sung to sleep tonight,” said d.i.c.k, ”but it's going to happen.”

When his eyes closed and he floated away to slumberland it was to the thrilling song of a bird on a bough above his head.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MESSENGER FROM RICHMOND

It seemed that d.i.c.k and his comrades were to see an activity in the valley under Sheridan much like that which Harry and his friends had experienced under Stonewall Jackson earlier in the war. All of the men before they went to sleep that night had felt confirmed in the belief that a strong hand was over them, and that a powerful and clear mind was directing them. There would be no more prodigal waste of men and supplies. No more would a Southern general have an opportunity to beat scattered forces in detail. The Union had given Sheridan a splendid army and a splendid equipment, and he would make the most of both.

Their belief in Sheridan's activity and energy was justified fully, perhaps to their own discomfort, as the trumpets sounded before dawn, and they ate a hasty breakfast, while the valley was yet dark. Then they were ordered to saddle and ride at once.

”What, so early?” exclaimed Pennington. ”Why, it's not daylight yet.

Isn't this new general of ours overdoing it?”

”We wanted a general who would lead,” said Warner, ”and we've got him.”

”But a battle a day! Isn't that too large an allowance?”

”No. We've a certain number of battles to fight, and the sooner we fight them the sooner the war will be over.”

”Here comes the dawn,” said d.i.c.k, ”and the bugles are singing to us to march. It's the cavalry that are to show the way.”

The long line of hors.e.m.e.n rode on southward, leaving behind them Winchester, the little city that had been beloved of Jackson, and approached the Ma.s.sanuttons, the bold range that for a while divided the valley into two parts. The valley was twenty miles wide before they came to the Ma.s.sanuttons, but after the division the western extension for some distance was not more than four miles across, and it was here that they were going. At the narrower part, on Fisher's Hill, Early had strong fortifications, defended by his finest infantry, and Colonel Winchester did not deem it likely that Sheridan would make a frontal attack upon a position so well defended.

It was about noon when the cavalry arrived before the Southern works. d.i.c.k, through his gla.s.ses, clearly saw the guns and columns of infantry, and also a body of Southern horse, drawn up on one flank of the hill. He fancied that the Invincibles were among them, but at the distance he could not pick them from the rest.

The regiment remained stationary, awaiting the orders of Sheridan, and d.i.c.k still used his gla.s.ses. He swept them again and again across the Confederate lines, and then he turned his attention to the mountains which here hemmed in the valley to such a straitened width. He saw a signal station of the enemy on a culminating ridge called Three Top Mountain, and as the flags there were waving industriously he knew that every movement of the Union army would be communicated to Early's troops below.

Yet the whole scene despite the fact that it was war, red war, appealed to d.i.c.k's sense of the romantic and beautiful. The fertile valley looked picturesque with its woods and fields, and on either side rose the ranges as if to protect it. Mountains like trees always appealed to him, and the steep slopes were wooded densely. Lower down they were brown, with touches of green that yet lingered, but higher up the glowing reds and golds of autumn were beginning to appear. The wind that blew down from the crests was full of life.

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