Rebs along to keep me
company," answered Abe, surlily.

Glen, standing in the rear of his company in his place as file-closer,
listened to these words, and saw in the dim distance and on the darkling
heights the throngs of fierce enemies and avalanches of impeding dangers
as are likely to oppress the imagination of a young soldier at such
unfavorable moments. The conflict and carnage seemed so imminent that he
half expected it to begin that very night, and he stiffened his sinews
for the shock.

Lieutenant Alspaugh also heard, studied over the unwelcome possibilities
shrouded in the gathering gloom of the distance, and regretted that he
had not, before crossing the Ohio, called the Surgeon's attention to
some premonitory symptoms of rheumatism, which he felt he might desire
to develop into an acute attack in the event of danger assuming an
unpleasant proximity.

But as no Rebels appeared on the sweeping semi-circle of hills that
shut in Convington on the south, he concluded to hold his disability
in abeyance, by a strong effort of the will, until the regiment had
penetrated farther into the enemy's country.

For days the regiment marched steadily on through the wonderfully lovely
Blue Grass Region, toward the interior of the State, without coming into
the neighborhood of any organized body of the Rebels.

Glen's first tremors upon crossing the Ohio subsided so as to permit him
to thoroughly enjoy the beauties of the scenery, and the pleasures of
out-door life in a region so attractive at that season of the year.

The turnpike, hard and smooth as a city pavement, wound over and around
romantic hills--hills crowned with cedar and evergreen laurel, and
scarred with cliffs and caverns. It passed through forests, aromatic
with ripening nuts and changing leaves, and glorious in the colors
of early Autumn. Then its course would traverse farms of gracefully
undulating acres, bounded by substantial stone-walls, marked by winding
streams of pure spring water, centering around great roomy houses, with
huge outside chimneys, and broad piazzas, and with a train of humble
negro cabins in the rear. The horses were proud stepping thoroughbreds,
the women comely and spirited, the men dignified and athletic, and all
seemed well-fed and comfortable. The names of the places along the route
recalled to Harry's memory all he had ever read of the desperate battles
and massacres and single-handed encounters of Daniel Boone and his
assoc