hat the cowardly officers had no doubt deliberately misled
the regiment, that a fight might be avoided. Kent Edwards saw a nodding
May-apple flower--as fair as a calla and as odorous as a pink--at a
little distance, and hastened to pick it. He came back with it in the
muzzle of his gun, and his hands full of violets.

A thick-bodied rattlesnake crawled slowly and clumsily out from the
shelter of a little ledge, his fearful eyes gleaming with deadly
intentions against a ground-squirrel frisking upon the end of a
mossy log, near where Captain Bob Bennett was seated, poring over a
troublesome detail in the "Tactics." The snake saw the man, and his
awkward movement changed at once into one of electric alertness. He
sounded his terrible rattle, and his dull diamonds and stripes lighted
up with the glare that shines through an enraged man's face. The thick
body seemed to lengthen out and gain a world of sinuous suppleness. With
the quickness of a flash he was coiled, with head erect, forked tongue
protruding, and eyes flaming like satanic jewels.

A shout appraised Captain Bennett of his danger. He dropped the book,
sprang to his feet with a quickness that matched the snake's, and
instinctively drew his sword. Stepping a little to one side as the
reptile launched itself at him, he dexterously cut it in two with a
sweeping stroke. A shout of applause rose from the excited boys, who
gathered around to inspect the slain serpent and congratulate the
Captain upon his skillful disposition of his assailant.

"O, that's only my old bat-stroke that used to worry the boys in
town-hall so much," said the Captain carelessly. "It's queer what things
turn out useful to a man, and when he least expects them."

A long, ringing yell from a thousand throats cleft the air, and with its
last notes came the rattle of musketry from the brow of the hill across
the little ravine. The bullets sang viciously overhead. They cut the
leaves and branches with sharp little crashes, and struck men's bodies
with a peculiar slap. A score of men in the disordered group fell back
dead or dying upon the green moss.

"Of course, we might've knowed them muddle-headed officers 'd run us
right slap into a hornets' nest of Rebels before they knowed a thing
about it," grumbled Abe Bolton, hastily tearing a cartridge with his
teeth, and forcing it into his gun.

"Hold on, my weak-kneed patriot," said Kent Edwards, catching Jake
Alspaugh by the collar, and turning