r that?" said Si through his chattering teeth.

"Yes, and there's somethin' comin' over this way," replied Shorty.

A shell came screaming and swishing through the air. The young Hoosiers
curled around the roots of that stump and flattened themselves out like
a pair of griddle-cakes. If it was Si that the rebel gunners were after,
they timed the shell to a second, for it burst with a loud bang just
over them. The fragments flew all around, one striking the stump and
others tearing up the dirt on every side.

[Illustration: IT BURST WITH A LOUD "BANG." 145 ]

To say that for the moment those two soldiers were demoralized would be
drawing it very mildly. They showed symptoms of a panic. It seemed as
though they would be hopelessly stampeded. Their tongues were paralyzed,
and they could only look silently into each other's white faces.

Si was the first to recover himself, although it could hardly be
expected that he could get over his scare all at once.

"D-d-did it hit ye, Sh-Shorty?" he said.

"N-no, I guess not; b-b-but ain't it aw-awful. Si? You look so bad I
th-thought you was k-k-killed!"

"Who's afeard?" said Si. "I was only skeered of you. Shorty. Brace up,
now same's I do!"

"Skirmishers--Forward!" was heard along the line. "Come on, Shorty!"
said Si, and they plunged bravely ahead.

Emerging suddenly from a thick wood, they came upon the rebel
skirmishers in full view, posted on the opposite side of the field.

Crack! Crack!--Zip! Zip!

"Guess there's a bee-tree somewhere around here, from the way the bees
are buzzin'," said Si.

"'Taint no bees," replied Shorty; "it's a mighty sight worse'n that.
Them's bullets, Si Don't ye see the dumed galoots over yonder a-shootin'
at us?"

Si was no coward, and he was determined to show that he wasn't. The
shell a little while before had taken the starch out of him for a few
minutes, but that was nothing to his discredit. Many a seasoned veteran
found himself exceedingly limber under such circumstances.

"Let's give the rascals a dose," said he; "the best we've got in stock!"

Suiting the action to the word, Si crept up to a fence, thrust his gun
between the rails, took good aim and fired.

[Illustration: SI TAKES A CRACK AT A REB 147 ]

A bullet from one of the other fellows made the splinters fly from a
rail a foot or two from Si's head; but he was getting excited now,
and he didn't mind it any more than if it had been a paper wad from a
pea-shooter.