re, we switched off, seized a
ferry-boat on the Chesapeake, just as she was about to be taken by the
secessionists, ran down here to Annapolis, saved the city, saved the old
frigate 'Constitution,' and, with the New York Seventh, went to work to
open a new route to Washington.

"Our boys repaired the railroad track, which the traitors had torn up,
and put in shape again the engine they had disabled. We had men that
could do anything; and that very engine was one they had made,--for the
South never did its own engine-building, but sent to Massachusetts to
have it done. Charley Homans knew every joint and pin in that old
machine, and soon had her running over the road again."

"How far is it to Washington?" asked Frank.

"About forty miles; but then we thought it a hundred, we were so
impatient to get there! What a march we had! all day and all night, the
engine helping us a little, and we helping the engine by hunting up and
replacing now and then a stray rail which the traitors had torn from the
track. A good many got used up, and Charley Homans took 'em aboard the
train. It was on that march I fell in with one of the pleasantest fellows
I ever saw; always full of wit and good-humor, with a cheery word for
every body. He belonged to the New York Seventh. He told me his name was
Winthrop. But I did not know till afterwards that he was Theodore
Winthrop, the author; afterwards Major Winthrop, who fell last June--only
two months after--at Big Bethel."

"It was a North Carolina drummer boy that shot him," said Frank.
"Winthrop was heading the attack on the battery; he jumped upon a log,
and was calling to the men, 'Come on!' when the drummer boy took a gun,
aimed deliberately, and shot him dead."

"I wouldn't want to be killed by a miserable drummer boy!" said Jack
Winch, envious because Frank remembered the incident.

"A drummer boy may be as brave as any body," said Frank, keeping his
temper. "But I wouldn't want to be even the bravest drummer boy, in a bad
cause."

"And as for being shot," said Gray, "I think Jack wouldn't willingly
place himself where there was much danger of being killed by any body."

"You'll see! you'll see!" said Jack, testily. "Just wait till the time
comes."

"What water is this the town fronts on?" asked Frank.

"The Chesapeake, of course! Who don't know that?" said Jack,
contemptuously.

"Only it ain't!" said Gray, with a quiet laugh. "This is the River
Severn. The Chesapeake is so