baton,
and the others, instinctively following their leader, roared it forth,
more than ten thousand strong.

Langdon in his glory led his cohorts in a vast circle around Jackson's
quarters, and the mighty chorus thundered through verse after verse,
until they closed in a lower tone with the lines:

"Silence! ground arms! kneel all! caps off!
Old Blue Light's going to pray;
Strangle the fool that dares to scoff!
Attention! it's his way!
Appealing from his native sod
In forma pauperis to God
Lay bare thine arm--stretch forth thy rod,
Amen! That's Stonewall Jackson's way."

Then Happy Tom threw down his stick and the men dispersed to their
quarters. But they had paid Stonewall Jackson a tribute that few
generals ever received.

"You're a wild and foolish fellow, Tom Langdon," said Dalton, "but I
like you for this thing you've done."

"You'll notice that Old Jack never appeared while we were singing,"
said Langdon. "I don't see why a man should be so modest and bashful.
Why, if I'd done half what he's done I'd ride the tallest horse in the
country; I'd have one of those Mexican saddles of yellow leather studded
with large golden-headed nails; the stirrups would be of gold and the
bridle bit would be gold, too. I'd have twelve uniforms all covered
with gold lace, and I'd have hats with gold-colored ostrich plumes
waving in them after the fashion of Jeb Stuart."

"Don't you worry, Tom," said Dalton. "You'll never have any excuse for
wearing so much gold. Have you heard what one of the boys said after
the chaplain preached the sermon to us last Sunday about leading the
children of Israel forty years through the wilderness?"

"No, George; what was it?"

"Forty years going through the wilderness," he growled. "Why, Stonewall
Jackson would have double-quicked 'em through in three days, and on half
rations, too."

"And so he would," exclaimed Harry with emphasis. The great affection
and admiration in which his troops held Jackson began to be tinged with
something that bordered upon superstition. They regarded his mental
powers, his intuition, judgment and quickness as something almost
supernatural. His great flanking movement at the Second Manassas,
and his arrival in time to save the army at Antietam, inspired them with
awe for a man who could do such things. They had long since ceased to
grumble when he undertook one of his tremendous marches, and they never