," replied Dick.

"As that's a long distance, we'll have a long ride to reach it," said
Warner, "and I'm glad of it. I'm enjoying this great trail, and I hope
we won't meet again those fire-eating friends of yours, Dick, who gave
us so much trouble last night."

"I hope so too," said Dick, "for their sake as well as ours. I don't
like fighting with such close kin. They must be well along on the
southwestern road now to join Early."

"There's no further danger of meeting them, at least before this campaign
opens," said Warner. "Shepard has just come back from a long gallop
and he reports that they are now at least twenty miles away, with the
distance increasing all the time."

Dick felt great relief. He was softening wonderfully in these days,
and while he had the most intense desire for the South to yield he had no
wish for the South to suffer more. He felt that the republic had been
saved and he was anxious for the war to be over soon. His heart swelled
with pride at the way in which the Union states had stood fast, how
they had suffered cruel defeats, but had come again, and yet again, how
mistakes and disaster had been overcome by courage and tenacity.

"A Confederate dollar for your thoughts," said Warner.

"You can have 'em without the dollar," replied Dick. "I was thinking
about the end of the war and after. What are all the soldiers going to
do then?"

"Go straight back to peace," replied Warner promptly. "I know my own
ambition. I've told you already that I intend to be president of Harvard
University, and, barring death, I'm bound to succeed. I give myself
twenty-five years for the task. If I choose my object now and bend every
energy toward it for twenty-five years I'm sure to obtain it. It's a
mathematical certainty."

"I'm going to be a great ranchman in Western Nebraska with my father,"
said Pennington. "He's under fifty yet, and he's as strong as a horse.
The buffalo in Western Nebraska must go and then Pennington and Son will
have fifty thousand fine cattle in their place. And you, Dick, have you
already chosen the throne on which you're going to sit?"

"Yes, I've been thinking about it for some time. I've made up my mind to
be an editor. After the war I'm going to the largest city in our state,
get a place on a newspaper there and strive to be its head. Then I'll
try to cement the reunion of North and South. That will be my greatest
topic. We soldiers won't hate one another