t-loving uncle.
But Stuart continued his jests and Jackson secretly enjoyed them.
The two men were so opposite in nature that they were complements and
each liked the society of the other.

The two lads and the staff officers went outside presently, and the two
generals were left together to talk business for a quarter of an hour.
When Stuart emerged he glanced at Harry and Dalton and beckoned to them.
When they came up he had mounted, but he leaned over, and pointing a
long finger in a buckskin glove in turn at each, he said:

"Can you dance?"

"Yes, sir," replied Harry.

"And you, Sir Knight of the Sober Mien?"

"I can try, sir," said Dalton.

"But can you make it a good try?"

"I can, sir."

"That's the right spirit. Well, there's going to be a ball down at
my headquarters to-night; not a little, two-penny, half-penny affair,
but a real ball, a grand ball. The bands of the Fifth Virginia and of
the Acadians will be there to play, alternating. You're invited and
you're coming. I've already obtained leave from General Jackson for you
both. I wish the general himself would come, but he's just received a
theological book that Dr. Graham at Winchester has sent him, and he's
bound to spend most of the night on that. Put on your best uniforms and
be there just after dark."

Harry and Dalton accepted eagerly, and Stuart, a genuine knight of old
alike in his courage and love of adornment, rode out of the grounds.

"There goes a man who certainly loves life," said Dalton.

"And don't you love it, and don't I love it, Mr. Philosopher and Cynic?"
said Harry.

"So we do. But, as General Jackson said, General Stuart is a boy,
younger than either of us."

"I hope to be the same kind of a boy when I'm his age."

Stuart was riding on, looking about with a luminous eye, fired by
the spirit within him and the great landscape spread out before him.
It was a noble landscape, the wooded ranges stretching to right and left,
with the long sweep of rolling country between. The somber ruins of
Fredericksburg were hidden from view just then, but in front of him
flowed the great Rappahannock, still black with floods and ice yet
floating near the banks.

Stuart drew a deep breath. It was a beautiful part of Virginia, old and
with many fine manor houses scattered about. And the people, educated,
polite, accustomed to everything, gladly sacrificed all they had for the
Confederacy in its hour of need. They had cut up