among the cadets, and they are among
the officers."

"We have our own set," said Preston. "I have nothing to do with them
in the corps."

"Now, Preston, look; what are they about? All the red sashes are
getting together."

"Parade is dismissed. They are coming up to salute the officer in
charge."

"It is so pretty!" I said, as the music burst out again, and the
measured steps of the advancing line of "red sashes" marked it. "And
now Captain Percival will unbend his stiff elbows. Why could not all
that be done easily, Preston?"

"Nonsense, Daisy!--it is military."

"Is it? But Mr. Blunt did it a great deal better. Now they are going.
Must you go?"

"Yes. What are you going to do to-morrow?"

"I don't know--I suppose we shall go into the woods again."

"When the examination is over, I can attend to you. I haven't much
time just now. But there is really nothing to be done here, since one
can't get on horseback out of the hours."

"I don't want anything better than I can get on my own feet," I said
joyously. "I find plenty to do."

"Look here, Daisy," said Preston--"don't you turn into a masculine,
muscular woman, that can walk her twenty miles and wear hobnailed
shoes--like the Yankees you are among. Don't forget that you are the
daughter of a Southern gentleman--"

He touched his cap hastily and turned away--walking with those
measured steps towards the barracks; whither now all the companies of
grey figures were in full retreat. I stood wondering, and then slowly
returned with my friends to the hotel; much puzzled to account for
Preston's discomposure and strange injunctions. The sunlight had left
the tops of the hills; the river slept in the gathering grey shadows,
soft, tranquil, reposeful. Before I got to the hotel, I had quite made
up my mind that my cousin's eccentricities were of no consequence.

They recurred to me, however, and were as puzzling as ever. I had no
key at the time.

The next afternoon was given to a very lively show: the light
artillery drill before the Board of Visitors. We sat out under the
trees to behold it; and I found out now the meaning of the broad
strip of plain between the hotel and the library, which was brown and
dusty in the midst of the universal green. Over this strip, round and
round, back, and forth, and across, the light artillery wagons rushed,
as if to show what they could do in time of need. It was a beautiful
sight, exciting and stirring; with the beat of h