. "It's been so dry that the
leaves are falling too early, and the reds, the yellows and the browns
are not so bright."

"Never mind, Dickie, boy," said Warner consolingly. "We'll see it in a
better year, because Pennington and I are both coming back to spend
six months with you when this war is over. I've already accepted the
invitation. So get ready for us, Dick."

"It's an understood thing now," said Dick sincerely. "There go the
trumpets, and they mean for us to get in line."

A large portion of the division was already on the way, having started
at five o'clock, and the little Winchester regiment was soon marching,
too. The day was again hot. October, even, did not seem able to break
that singular heat, and the dust was soon billowing about them in
columns, stinging and burning them. The sergeant the night before had
taken a short cut through the hills, but the brigades, needing wide
spaces, marched along the roads and through the fields. A portion of
their own army was hidden from them by ridges and forest, and Dick did
not know whether Buell with the other half of the army had come up.

After a long and exhausting march they stopped, and the Winchester
regiment and the Ohio lads concluded that they had been wrong after
all. No battle would be fought that day. They were willing now, too, to
postpone it, as they were almost exhausted by heat and thirst, and that
stinging, burning dust was maddening. A portion of their line rested
on the first creek, and they drank eagerly of the muddy water. Dick saw
before him fields in which the corn stood thick and heavy. The fields
were divided by hedges which cut off the view somewhat and which the
sergeant said would furnish great ambush for sharpshooters.

The men were now allowed to lie down, but most of them were still
panting with the heat. The three boys on horseback rode with Colonel
Winchester to the crest of a low hill, just beyond the first creek. From
that point they clearly saw the enemy gathered in battle array along the
second stream. Dick, with his glasses, saw the batteries, and could even
mark the sun-browned faces of the men.

"Has General Buell come?" he asked Colonel Winchester.

"He has not. Not half of our army is here."

The answer was made with emphasis and chagrin. There was a report that
Buell did not intend to attack until the following day, when he would
have his numbers well in hand.

"Under the circumstances," said the colonel, "we have