Ashley's force arrived, three hundred cavalry.
Among the regiments there Vincent found many friends, and learned what
was going on.

He learned that Colonel Jackson had been keeping them hard at work. Some
of Vincent's friends had been at the Virginia Military Institute at
Lexington, where Jackson was professor of natural philosophy and
instructor of artillery.

"He was the greatest fun," one of the young men said; "the stiffest and
most awkward-looking fellow in the Institute. He used to walk about as
if he never saw anything or anybody. He was always known as Old Tom, and
nobody ever saw him laugh. He was awfully earnest in all he did, and
strict, I can tell you, about everything. There was no humbugging him.
The fellows liked him because he was really so earnest about
everything, and always just and fair. But he didn't look a bit like a
soldier except as to his stiffness, and when the fellows who had been at
Lexington heard that he was in command here they did not think he would
have made much hand at it; but I tell you, he did. You never saw such a
fellow to work.

"Everything had to be done, you know. There were the guns, but no horses
and no harness. The horses had to be got somehow, and the harness
manufactured out of ropes; and you can imagine the confusion of nine
battalions of infantry, all recruits, with no one to teach them except a
score or two of old army and militia officers. Old Tom has done wonders,
I can tell you. You see, he is so fearfully earnest himself everyone
else has got to be earnest. There has been no playing about anything,
but just fifteen hours' hard work a day. Fellows grumbled and growled
and said it was absurd, and threatened to do all sorts of things. You
see, they had all come out to fight, if necessary, but hadn't bargained
for such hard work as this.

"However, Jackson had his way, and I don't suppose anyone ever told him
the men thought they were too hard worked. He is not the sort of man one
would care about remonstrating with. I don't know yet whether he is as
good at fighting as he is at working and organizing; but I rather expect
a fellow who is so earnest about everything else is sure to be earnest
about fighting, and I fancy that, when he once gets into the thick of
it, he will go through with it. He had such a reputation as an oddity at
Lexington that there were a lot of remarks when he was made colonel and
sent here; but there is no doubt that he has proved himself the