Attintion, min! Shoulder, a-r-m-s! Roight face! Forward, foile
left!--M-a-r-c-h!"

"I s'pose I ain't responsible for any o' the fairy tales with which
that wild Mick'll fill up the Captain," said Si, self-consolingly, as
Hennessey and his squad marched away in quick time. "He'll put a rich,
red, County Connaught color on everything that's happened out here, and
the Captain'll believe as much as suits him. Anyhow, Hennessey'll not
say anything to our disadvantage, and probably the Captain'll send out
some rations by fast mule express."

"Yes," accorded Shorty; "we'll git some rations from camp by this
evenin'. Cap will look out for that. Meanwhile, I'll take out two or
three o' the boys on a scout into the country, to see if we can't pick
up something to eat."

"Humph," said Si, skeptically, "you'll find mighty poor pickin', after
them Ohio boys 's bin out here three days. What they haint taken has
been rooted in the ground."

"Yes; they're awful foragers and thieves," assented Shorty. "All Ohio
boys is. I'm glad I'm from Injianny. Still, I've generally bin able to
find something, even after the Ohio boys had bin there."

"Well, I think we'd better first go back and see about them rebels that
we wounded last night. They may be sufferin' awfully, and we oughtn't to
think about something to eat, before doin' what we kin for them."

"That's so," assented Shorty. "I'd a-gone back last night, but we was
all so dead tired."

"Well, I'll take two o' the boys and go back. You stay here with the
rest, and hold the mill. I'll git back as soon's I kin, and then you kin
take a couple o' the boys and go out foragin'."

Calling Alf Russell and Monty Scruggs to follow him, Si started back to
the scene of the skirmish of the night before. The woods looked totally
different, under the bright Spring sunshine, from what they had seemed
in the chill, wet blackness of the previous night. Buds were bursting
and birds singing, and all nature seemed very blithe and inspiring.

"Gracious, what a difference daylight makes in the woods," murmured
Monty Scruggs. "Tain't a bit like Hohenlinden.

"'Tis morn, but scarce yon lurid sun
Can pierce the war-clouds rolling dun,
Where furious Frank and fiery Hun
Shout 'mid their sulphurous canopy."

"You'd think, from the way the bird 's singing, and the flowers
blooming, that there'd never been a gun fired within a hundred miles o'
here."

"Seems like we only dreamed all