good. Soldiers are not like
sick children."

"A good many of ours seem to feel that way just now, sir," said the
young officer. "I only thought to cheer him up a bit."

"Well, when my men need nursing, Mr. Davies, I'll have you detailed in
that capacity, but be so good as to refrain from it otherwise. I don't
like it. That's all."

Without a word Davies turned on his heel and went back to his horse.
Truman, looking after him with a not unkindly interest in his tired
eyes, saw that he swayed a little as he ploughed his way through the
thick and sticky mud. "That boy's as weak as a sick child himself,
Devers," said he. "You'll have to have a nurse for him before we get
in."

"Well, it's his own fault, then. He had just as much in his haversack as
I had when we cut loose from the main column. I 'spose he's given it
away."

"I know he has," was the curt rejoinder. "Neither of those two men could
stomach tough mule meat. I suppose that was the only way to get 'em
along."

Devers turned gloomily about. Down in the bottom of his heart he felt
that in his annoyance at what he considered disregard of his
instructions he had spoken harshly and unjustly to a young officer of
whom he had heard many a word of praise during the hard and trying
campaign now drawing to a close. True, the words had fallen mainly from
the lips of those of the rank and file or from seniors whom he didn't
like. In some, cases, especially among the enlisted men, they would
appear to have been spoken for the captain's especial benefit. Devers,
while a painstaking officer and not unmindful of the care of his men,
was one who "lacked magnetism," to say the least, and never won from
them the enthusiastic homage they often lavished on others among their
superiors. The fact that Lieutenant Davies, finding Moore and Rupp
actually so weak from lack of food that they could hardly drag one leg
after another, had been sharing with them his own slender store of
provision was not the first thing the men had noted in his favor, but
that was no reason, thought Devers, why they should raise their voices
and glance covertly in his direction when referring to it. Devers was
one of the kind sometimes called unsympathetic, that is, he seemed so,
but it was more in manner than in fact, for few troop commanders in his
regiment were really more careful in providing for their men than he.
But these were days that tried men's tempers as well as their souls, and
the office