ully that part of
the works they had crossed, and the abatis in front, but could find no
trace of him. They feared that after he had been shot he had crawled
back under the shelter of some tree-tops, to protect him from the flying
bullets, and died there. They turned over and pulled apart the branches
for a wide space, but did not succeed in finding him, or any trace. But
they found Bob Willis, stark in death, lying prone in the top of a young
hickory, into which he had crashed, when the fatal bullet found him
pressing courageously forward. Him they carried pitifully forward, and
added to the lengthening row of the regiment's dead, which was being
gathered up.

Then they went reluctantly back--shuddering with the certainty of what
they should find, to bring in Jim Humphreys's body.

Harry Joslyn was so agitated by the sight of Humphreys's mangled head
and staring eyes that Si made him turn his back, place himself between
the feet, one of which he took in each hand, and go before in carrying
the body back. Si stripped the blouse up so as to cover the head, and
took the shoulders between his hands, and so another body was added to
the row of the regimental dead.

Si himself was so sick at heart that he had little inclination to
continue the search farther than to look over the wounded, as they were
brought in, in hopes of finding some of his squad there.

"There are three of us yet missing," he said. "Mebbe they've got mixed
up with the Kankakee boys on our left, and'll come in all right after
awhile. Mebbe they're out with Shorty somewhere. I'll wait till he comes
in. Harry, I expect me and you'd better dig poor Jim's grave. There's
no tellin' how long we'll stay here. Jim 'd rather we put him under than
strangers what don't know and care for him. It's all we kin do for the
poor feller; I'll git a pick and you take a shovel. We'll make the grave
right here, where the Colonel lit when he jumped over the works with the
flag. That'll tickle Jim, if he's lookin' down from the clouds. Too bad,
he couldn't have lived long enough to see us go over the embankment,
with the Colonel in the lead, wavin' the flag."

"The best thing," said Harry, forgetting his sorrow in the exciting
memories of the fight, "was to see the Orderly sock his bayonet up to
the shank in the rebel, and you blow off that officer's head--"

"Hush, Harry. Never speak o' that," Si admonished him.

"And see you," continued Harry, "stand off all three of