ed.

And into sight dashed a flying battery, guns and limbers bouncing and
thumping, whips cracking, chains crashing, the six-horse teams on a dead
run.

An officer drew bridle and threw his horse on its haunches; the first
team rushed on to the pass with a clash and clank of wheels and chains,
swung wide in a demi-tour, dropped a dully glistening gun, and then came
trampling back. The second, third, and fourth teams, guns and caissons,
swerved to the right of the hillock and came plunging up the bushy
slope, horses straining and scrambling, trampling through the wretched
garden to the level grass above.

One by one the gun teams swung in a half circle, each dropped its
mud-spattered gun, the cannoneers sprang to unhook the trails, the
frantic, half-maddened horses were lashed to the rear.

The Special Messenger rose quietly to her feet, and at the same instant
a passing cannoneer turned and saw her in the doorway.

"Hey!" he exclaimed; "what you doin' thar?"

A very young major, spurring up the slope, caught sight of her, too.

"This won't do!" he began excitedly, pushing his sweating horse up to
the door. "I'm sorry, but it won't do--" He hesitated, perplexed, eyeing
this slim, dark-eyed girl, who stood as though dazed there in her ragged
homespun and naked feet.

Colonel Carrick, passing at a canter, turned in his saddle, calling out:

"Major Kent! Keep that woman here! It's too late to send her back."

The boy-major saluted, then turned to the girl again:

"Who are you?" he asked, vexed.

She seemed unable to reply.

A cannoneer said respectfully:

"Reckon the li'l gal's jes' natch'ally skeered o' we-uns, Major, seein'
how the caval'y ketched her paw down thar in the crick."

The Major said briefly:

"Your father is a Union man, but nobody is going to hurt him. I'd send
you to the rear, too, but there's no time now. Please go in and shut
that door. I'll see that nobody disturbs you."

As she was closing the door the young Major called after her:

"Where's the well?"

As she did not know she only stared at him as though terrified.

"All right," he said, more gently. "Don't be frightened. I'll come back
and talk to you in a little while."

As she shut the door she saw the cannon at the pass limber up, wheel,
and go bumping up the hill to rejoin its bespattered fellows on the
knoll.

An artilleryman came along and dropped a bundle of picks and shovels
which he was carrying to the gunners, wh