FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>   >|  
t after dawn. Now kindly lift that canvasflap, look out and tell me what you see." Harry did as he was told, and was amazed. The same rolling landscape still met his eyes, and the sun was just about as high in the sky as it was when he had climbed into the wagon. But it was in the west now instead of the east. "See and know, young man!" said Dalton, paternally. "The entire day has elapsed and here you have lain in ignorant slumber, careless of everything, reckless of what might happen to the army. For twelve hours General Lee has been without your advice, and how, lacking it, he has got this far, Heaven alone knows." "It seems that he's pulled through, and, since I'm now awake, you can hurry to him and tell him I'm ready to furnish the right plans to stop the forthcoming Yankee invasion." "They'll keep another day, but we've certainly had a good sleep, Harry." "Yes, a provision or ammunition wagon isn't a bad place for a wornout soldier. I remember I slept in another such as this in the Valley of Virginia, when we were with Jackson." He stopped suddenly and choked. He could not mention the name of Jackson, until long afterward, without something rising in his throat. The driver obscured a good deal of the front view, but he suddenly turned a rubicund and smiling face upon them. "Waked up, hev ye?" he exclaimed. "Wa'al it's about time. I've looked back from time to time an' I wuzn't at all shore whether you two gen'rals wuz alive or dead. Sometimes when the wagon slanted a lot you would roll over each other, but it didn't seem to make no diffunce. Pow'ful good sleepers you are." "Yes," said Harry. "We're two of the original Seven Sleepers." "I don't doubt that you are two, but they wuz more'n seven." "How do you know?" "'Cause at least seven thousand in this train have been sleepin' as hard as you wuz. I guess you mean the 'rig'nal Seventy Thousand Sleepers." Harry's spirits had returned after his long sleep. He was a lad again. The weight of Gettysburg no longer rested upon him. The Army of Northern Virginia had merely made a single failure. It would strike again and again, as hard as ever. "It's true that we've been slumbering," he said, "but we're as wide awake now as ever, Mr. Driver." "My name ain't Driver," said the man. "Then what is it?" "Jones, Dick Jones, which I hold to be a right proper name." "Not romantic, but short, simple and satisfying." "I recko
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Sleepers

 

suddenly

 
Jackson
 
Virginia
 
Driver
 

Sometimes

 

simple

 

slanted

 

proper

 

Northern


romantic

 

single

 

exclaimed

 

slumbering

 

looked

 
satisfying
 

strike

 
failure
 

smiling

 
thousand

Seventy

 

Thousand

 
spirits
 

sleepin

 

rested

 

sleepers

 

diffunce

 

returned

 

longer

 

weight


original

 
Gettysburg
 

remember

 

ignorant

 

slumber

 

careless

 

elapsed

 

entire

 

Dalton

 

paternally


reckless

 

General

 

advice

 

twelve

 

happen

 

amazed

 
kindly
 
canvasflap
 
rolling
 

climbed