bank and run back here as fast as we could fetch
it. You ain't goin' to tell the Captain on us, and have us tied up by
the thumbs, are you, Corporal? Everything's safe. Nothing's gone. You
won't tell, will you?"

"O, you worthless little scamp," said Shorty, with tears of joy in his
eyes. "You ain't worth the powder that'd blow you up. I could pound you
for the worry you've given me in the last hour. But you ain't hurt a
bit, are you?"

"Nope," answered Pete. "But we both got awfully scratched runnin'
through that brush. Say, wasn't the way the boys jumped the works and
waded into them sardines just grand?"

The Orderly-Sergeant and his detail came back for the things, and Shorty
and the boys, picking up those belonging to the squad, made their way to
the company.

By the time they got back everybody's emotions had subsided sufficiently
to allow him to remember that he was terribly hungry, and that the next
business in order should be the cooking of the first warm meal they had
had for more than a day. Fires were soon blazing in every direction, and
the air was fragrant with the smell of hot coffee and cooking meat. Even
Monty Scruggs felt that the kink had gone out of his backbone, and the
disturbance in his dietetic department had sufficiently subsided to
allow him to enjoy a cup of coffee and piece of toasted meat on a
hardtack. The Surgeon had reached Gid Mackall, and had put him in
comfortable shape.

The bodies of Bob Willis and Jim Humphreys were wrapped in their
blankets, and mournfully consigned to the earth. A cedar bush was stuck
in the head of each grave, and Si, finding a piece of smooth board and
a chunk of soft charcoal from a fire, sat down on the bank, and begun
laboriously composing the following inscription:

JAMES HUMFRI
CO. Q.

200th injianny VolunTer Infantry
KiLD may, 15th 1864
He dide For His country
The lord luvs a

Braiv man

"That's all right. Si," said Shorty coming up with his mouthful of
hardtack and meat, and inspecting Si's work with critical approval.
"You kin lay away over me and all the rest when it comes to writin' and
composin'. And you know how to spell, too. I wish I had your education.
But I never had a chance to go to school."

"Then you think it'll do, Shorty," said Si, much flattered by his
partner's approval.

"Yes, it's just bully. But I think you ought t