orse a few seconds before Jackson himself
was in the saddle, and rode away again.

The general sent him on no missions for a while, and Harry rode in
silence. Observant, as always, he noticed the long ridges of the
mountains, showing blue in the distance, and the occasional glimmer
of water in the valley. It was beautiful, this valley, and he did not
wonder that the Virginians talked of it so much. He shared their wrath
because the hostile Northern foot already pressed a portion, and he felt
as much eagerness as they to drive away the invader.

He also saw pretty soon that the long lines of the mountains, so blue
and beautiful against the shining sun, were losing their clear and vivid
tints. The sky above them was turning to gray, and their crests were
growing pale. Then a wind chill and sharp with the edge of winter began
to blow down from the slopes. It had been merely playing at summer that
morning and, before the first day of January 1862, closed, winter rushed
down upon Virginia, bringing with it the fiercest and most sanguinary
year the New World ever knew--save the one that followed it, and the one
that followed that.

The temperature dropped many degrees in an hour. Just as the young
troops of Grant, marching to Donelson, deceived by a warm morning had
cast aside their heavy clothing to be chilled to the bone before the
day was over, so the equally young troops of Jackson now suffered in the
same way, and from the same lack of thought.

Most of their overcoats and cloaks were in the wagons, and there was
no time to get them, because Jackson would not permit any delays. They
shivered and grumbled under their breath. Nevertheless the army marched
swiftly, while the dark clouds, laden with snow and cold, marched up
with equal swiftness from the western horizon.

A winter campaign! It did not seem so glorious now to many of the boys
who in the warmth and the sunshine had throbbed with the thought of it.
They inquired once more about those wagons containing their overcoats
and blankets, and they learned that they had followed easier roads,
while the troops themselves were taking short cuts through the forests
and across the fields. They might be reunited at night, and they might
not. It was not considered a matter of the first importance by Jackson.

Harry had been wise enough to retain his military cloak strapped to his
saddle, and he wrapped it about his body, drawing the collar as high
as he could. One of hi