e
better than their generals in the West. And then there are the rivers.
In the East they mostly run eastward between the two armies, and they
are no help to us, but a hindrance rather. Here in the West the rivers,
and they are many and great, mostly run southward, the way we want to
go, and they bring our gunboats on their bosoms. Excuse my poetry, but
it's what I mean."

"You must be right. I think that all the reasons you give apply
together. But our command of the water has surely been a tremendous
help. And then we've got to remember, Dick, that there was never a navy
like ours. It goes everywhere and it does everything. Why, if Admiral
Farragut should tell one of those gunboats to steam across the
Mississippi bottoms it would turn its saucy nose, steer right out of
the water into the mud, and blow up with all hands aboard before it quit
trying."

"You two fellows talk too much," said Pennington. "You won't let
President Lincoln and Grant and Halleck manage the war, but you want to
run it yourselves."

"I don't want to run anything just now, Frank," rejoined Dick. "What I'm
thinking about most is rest and something to eat. I'd like to get rid,
too, of about ten pounds of Mississippi mud that I'm carrying."

"Well, I can catch a glint of white pillars through those trees.
It means the 'big house' of a plantation, and you'll probably find
somewhere back of it the long rows of cabins, inhabited by the dark
people, whom we've come to raise to the level of their masters, if not
above them. I can see right now the joyous welcome we'll receive from
the owners of the big house. They'll be standing on the great piazza,
waving Union flags and shouting to us that they have ready cooling
drinks and luxurious food for us all."

"It's hardly a joke to me. Whatever the cause of the war, it's the
bitterness of death for these people to be overrun. Besides, I remember
the words of that old fellow in the blacksmith shop before we fought
the battle of Stone River. He said that even if they were beaten they'd
still be there holding the land and running things."

"That's true," said Warner. "I've been wondering how this war would end,
and now I'm wondering what will happen after it does end. But here we
are at the gate. What big grounds! These great planters certainly had
space!"

"And what silence!" said Dick. "It's uncanny, George. A place like this
must have had a thousand slaves, and I don't see any of them rushing
forwar