in the woods, and bullets
were "zoo-ing" over the fields. But the boys could not see anything,
and they did not think about the flying balls.

They were all excitement at the idea of "our men" whipping the enemy,
and they ran with all their might to be in time to see them "chase 'em
across the field."

The road on which the skirmish took place, and down which the Federal
rear-guard had retreated, made a sharp curve beyond the woods, around
the bend of a little stream crossed by a small bridge; and the boys,
in taking the short cut, had placed the road between themselves and
home; but they did not care about that, for their men were driving the
others. They "just wanted to see it."

They reached the edge of the field in time to see that the Yankees
were on the other side of the stream. They knew them to be where puffs
of smoke came out of the opposite wood. And the Confederates had
stopped beyond the bridge, and were halted, in some confusion, in the
field.

The firing was very sharp, and bullets were singing in every
direction. Then the Confederates got together, and went as hard as
they could right at them up to the wood, all along the edge of which
the smoke was pouring in continuous puffs and with a rattle of shots.
They saw several horses fall as the Confederates galloped on, but the
smoke hid most of it. Next they saw a long line of fire appear in the
smoke on both sides of the road, where it entered the wood; then the
Confederates stopped, and became all mixed up; a number of horses
galloped away without their riders, another line of white and red
flame came out of the woods, the Confederates began to come back,
leaving many horses on the ground, and a body of cavalry in blue coats
poured out of the wood in pursuit.

"Look! look! They are running--they are beating our men!" exclaimed
the boys. "They have driven 'em back across the bridge!"

"How many of them there are!"

"What shall we do? Suppose they see us!"

"Come on, Mah'srs Frank 'n' Willy, let's go home," said the colored
boys. "They'll shoot us."

The fight was now in the woods which lay between the boys and their
home. But just then the gray-coats got together, again turned at the
edge of the wood, and dashed back on their pursuers, and--the smoke
and bushes on the stream hid everything. In a second more both emerged
on the other side of the smoke and went into the woods on the further
edge of the field, all in confusion, and leaving on the g