"

Overcoats, blankets, haversacks and knapsacks were hastily pied, and the
two most exhausted men in each company placed on guard over them.

Kent and Abe did not contribute their canteen to the company pile. But
then its weight was much less of an impediment than when they left Camp
Dick Robinson.

They employed the very brief halt of the regiment in swabbing out the
barrels of their muskets very carefully, and removing the last traces of
moisture from the nipples and hammers.

"At last I stand a show of getting some return from this old piece of
gas-tube for the trouble it's been to me," said Kent Edwards, as he ran
a pin into the nipple to make assurance doubly sure that it was entirely
free. "Think of the transportation charges I have against it, for the
time I have lugged it around over Ohio and Kentucky, to say nothing
of the manual labor and the mental strain of learning and practising
'present arms,' 'carry arms,' 'support arms,' and such military
monkey-shines under the hot sun of last Summer!"

He pulled off the woolen rag he had twisted around the head of the
rammer for a swab, wiped the rammer clean and bright and dropped it into
the gun. It fell with a clear ring. Another dextrous movement of the
gun sent it flying into the air. Kent caught it as it came down and
scrutinized its bright head. He found no smirch of dirt or dampness.
"Clean and clear as a whistle inside," he said, approvingly. "She'll
make music that our Secession friends will pay attention to, though it
may not be as sweet to their ears as 'The Bonnie Blue Flag.'"

"More likely kick the whole northwest quarter section of your shoulder
off when you try to shoot it," growled Abe, who had been paying
similar close attention to his gun. "If we'd had anybody but a lot of
mullet-heads for officers we'd a'been sent up here last week, when the
weather and the roads were good, and when we could've done something.
Now our boys'll be licked before we can get where we can help 'em."

Glen leaned on his musket, and listening to the deepening roar of
battle, was shaken by the surge of emotions natural to the occasion. It
seemed as if no one could live through the incessant firing the sound of
which rolled down to them. To go up into it was to deliberately venture
into certain destruction. Memory made a vehement protest. He recalled
all the pleasant things that life had in store for him; all that he
could enjoy and accomplish; all that he might be t