he sky until they reached the zenith.

"Try the glasses for a moment, Dick," said Colonel Newcomb, as he passed
them to the boy.

Dick swept them across the South in a great semi-circle, and now new
objects rose upon the surface of the earth. He saw distinctly the
long chain of the Blue Ridge rising on the west, then blurring in the
distance into a solid black rampart. In the south he saw a long curving
line of rising blue plumes. It did not need Colonel Newcomb to tell him
that these were the campfires of the army that they had met on the
field of Bull Run, and that the Southern troops were now cooking their
suppers.

No doubt his cousin Harry was there and perhaps others whom he knew.
The fires seemed to Dick a defiance to the Union. Well, in view of their
victory, the defiance was justified, and those fires might come nearer
yet. Dick, catching the tone of older men who shared his views, had not
believed at first that the rebellion would last long, but his opinion
was changing fast, and the talk of wise Sergeant Whitley was helping
much in that change.

While he yet looked through the glasses he saw a plume of white smoke
coming swiftly towards the Southern fires. Then he remembered the two
lines of railroad that met on the battlefield, giving it its other
name, Manassas Junction, and he knew that the smoke came from an engine
pulling cars loaded with supplies for their foes.

He whispered of the train as he handed the glasses back to Colonel
Newcomb, and then the colonel and the generals alike made a long
examination.

"Beauregard will certainly have an abundance of supplies," said one of
the generals. "I hear that arms and provisions are coming by every train
from the South, and meanwhile we are making no advance."

"We can't advance yet," said the other general emphatically. "McClellan
is right in making elaborate preparations and long drills before moving
upon the enemy. It was inexperience, and not want of courage, that beat
us at Bull Run."

"The Southerners had the same inexperience."

"But they had the defensive. I hear that Tom Jackson saved them, and
that they have given him the name Stonewall, because he stood so firm.
I was at West Point with him. An odd, awkward fellow, but one of the
hardest students I have ever known. The boys laughed at him when he
first came, but they soon stopped. He had a funny way of studying,
standing up with his book on a shelf, instead of sitting down at a desk.
Sai