to signal the mind that it was, in very truth, hungry. He was
about to raise the food to his lips and then he remembered.

Spurring forward a little he held out the bread and meat to Jackson.

"It's cold and hard, sir," he said, "but you'll find it good."

"It's thoughtful of you," said Jackson. "I'll take half and see that you
eat the rest. Give none of it to this hungry horde around me. They're
able to forage for themselves."

Jackson ate his half and Harry his. That reminded most of the officers
that they had food also, and producing it they divided it and fell
to with an appetite. As they ate, a shell from one of the retreating
Northern batteries burst almost over their heads and fragments of hot
metal struck upon the hard road. They ate on complacently. When Jackson
had finished his portion he took out one of his mysterious lemons and
began to suck the end of it.

Midnight was now far behind and the pursuit never halted. One of the
officers remarked jokingly that he had accepted an invitation to take
breakfast on the Yankee stores in Winchester the next morning. Jackson
made no comment. Harry a few minutes later uttered a little cry.

"What is it?" asked Jackson.

"We're coming upon our old battlefield of Kernstown. I know those hills
even in the dark."

"So we are. You have good eyes, boy. It's been a long march, but here we
are almost back in Winchester."

"The enemy are massing in front, sir," said Dalton. "It looks as if they
meant to make another stand."

The Massachusetts troops, their hearts bitter at the need to retreat,
were forming again on a ridge behind Kernstown, and the Pennsylvanians
and others were joining them. Their batteries opened heavily on their
pursuers, and the night was lighted again with the flame of many cannon
and rifles.

But their efforts were vain against the resistless advance of Jackson.
The peal of the Southern trumpets was heard above cannon and rifles,
always calling upon the men to advance, and, summoning their strength
anew, they hurled themselves upon the Northern position.

Fighting hard, but unable to turn the charge, the men in blue were
driven on again, leaving more prisoners and more spoil in the hands of
their pursuers. The battle at three o'clock in the morning lasted but a
short time.

The sound of the retreating column, the footsteps, the hoof-beats and
the roll of the cannon, died away down the turnpike. But the sound of
the army marching in pursuit d