ck, made his blankets into a roll, tieing their ends together,
threw them scarf-fashion over his shoulder, and took his accustomed
place as file-closer in the rear of his company. He was conscious all
the time, though he suffered no outward sign to betray the fact, that
he was closely watched by the boys who had been with him in Western
Virginia, and who were eager to see how he would demean himself in this
new emergency.

He was shortly ordered to assist in the inspection of cartridge-boxes
and the issuing of cartridges, and the grim nature of the errand they
were about to start upon duly impressed itself upon his mind as he
walked down the lines in the melancholy rains, examined each box, and
gave the owner the quantity of cartridges required to make up the quota
of forty rounds per man.

Those who scrutinized his face as he passed slowly by, saw underneath
the dripping eaves of his broad-brimmed hat firm-set lines about his
mouth, and a little more luminous light in his eyes.

"Harry Glen's screwing his courage to the sticking point. He's bound to
go through this time," said Kent Edwards.

"The more fool he," answered Abe Bolton, adjusting his poncho so as to
better protect his cartridges and rations from the rain. "If he wanted
to play the warrior all so bold why didn't he improve his opportunities
in West Virginia, when it was fine weather and he only had three months
to do it in? Now that he's in for three years it will be almighty
strange if he can't find a pleasanter time to make his little strut on
the field of battle than in this infernal soak."

"I have seen better days than this, as the tramp remarked who had once
been a bank cashier," murmured kent, tightening the tompion in his
musket-muzzle with a piece of paper, the better to exclude the moisture,
and wrapping a part of the poncho around the lock for the same purpose.
"Where is that canteen?"

"It's where it'll do you no good until you need it much worse'n you do
now. O, I know you of old, Mr. Kent Edwards," continued Abe, with that
deep sarcasm, which was his nearest approach to humor. "I may say that
I've had the advantages of an intimate acquaintance with you for years,
and when I trust you with a full canteen of apple-jack at the beginning
of such a march as this'll be, I'll be ready to enlist in the permanent
garrison of a lunatic asylum, I will. This canteen only holds three
pints; that's great deal less'n you do. It's full now, and you're em