ed, he had made arrangements to sleep in the open air,
his blankets spread upon soft boughs. Harry and Dalton, having slept
all day, would be on night duty, and after supper they sat at a little
distance, awaiting orders.

Coolness had come with the dark. A good moon and swarms of bright stars
rode in the heavens, turning the skies to misty silver, and softening the
scars of the army, which now lay encamped over a great space. Lee was
talking with Stuart, who evidently had just arrived from a swift ride,
as an orderly near by was holding his horse, covered with foam. The
famous cavalryman was clothed in his gorgeous best. His hat was heavy
with gold braid, and the broad sash about his waist was heavy with gold,
also. Dandy he was, but brilliant cavalryman and great soldier too!
Both friend and foe had said so.

Harry, sitting on the grass, with his back against a tree, watched the
two generals as they talked long and earnestly. Now and then Stuart
nervously switched the tops of his own high riding boots with the little
whip that he carried, but the face of Lee, revealed clearly in the near
twilight, remained grave and impassive.

After a long while Stuart mounted and rode away, and Sherburne, who had
been sitting among the trees on the far side of the fire, came over and
joined Harry and Dalton. He too was very grave.

"Do you know what has happened?" he said in a low tone to the two lads.

"Yes, there was a big battle at Gettysburg, and as we failed to win it
we're now retreating," replied Harry.

"That's true as far as it goes, but it's not all. We've heard--and
the news is correct beyond a doubt--that Grant has taken Vicksburg and
Pemberton's army with it."

"Good God, Sherburne, it can't be so!"

"It shouldn't be so, but it is! Oh, why did Pemberton let himself be
trapped in such a way! A whole army of ours lost and our greatest
fortress in the West taken! Why, the Yankee men-of-war can steam up the
Mississippi untouched, all the way from the Gulf to Minnesota."

Harry and Dalton were appalled, and, for a little while, were silent.

"I knew that man Grant would do something terrible to us," Harry said at
last. "I've heard from my people in Kentucky what sort of a general he
is. My father was at Shiloh, where we had a great victory on, but Grant
wouldn't admit it, and held on, until another Union army came up and
turned our victory into defeat. My cousin, Dick Mason, has been with
Grant a lo