. Stalk and blade and
tassel, and the intertwining small, pale-blue morning-glory, all were
down. Gun-wheels, horses' hoofs, feet of men had made of naught the
sower's pains. The rail fence all around was burning. In a furrow the
two found a knapsack, and in it biscuit and jerked beef. "My Aunt Eliza!
I was hungry!" said the artilleryman. "Know how the Israelites felt when
they gathered manna off the ground!" Out of the cornfield they passed
into a shaggy finger of forest. Suddenly firing broke out ahead. Steve
started like a squirrel. "That's close to us!"

"There's the railroad!" said the other. "There's Fair Oaks Station. They
had entrenchments there, but the scouts say they evacuated them this
morning. If they make a stand, reckon it'll be at Savage Station. That
musketry popping's down the line! Come on! I can go pretty fast!"

He plied his staff. They came into another ragged field, narrow and
sloping to a stretch of railroad track and the smoking ruins of a wooden
station. Around were numerous earthworks, all abandoned. Beyond the
station, on either side the road, grey troops were massing. The firing
ahead was as yet desultory. "Just skirmishers passing the time of day!"
said the artilleryman. "Hello! What're they doing on the railroad track?
Well, I should think so!"

Across the track, immediately below them, had been thrown by the
retreating army a very considerable barricade. Broken wagons, felled
trees, logs and a great mass of earth spanned it like a landslide. Over
and about it worked a grey company detailed to clear the way. From the
edge of a wood, not many yards up the track, came an impatient chorus.
"Hurry up, boys! hurry up! hurry up! We want to get by--want to get
by--"

"A railroad gun on a flat car placed--"

The artilleryman began to crow. "It's Lieutenant Barry and the railroad
gun! Siege piece run on a car. Iron penthouse over it, muzzle sticking
out--engine behind--"

"The Yankees skedaddle as though in haste
But this thirty-two pounder howitzer imp
It makes them halt and it makes them limp,
This railroad gun on a flat car placed."

"Hurry up there! Hurry up! Hurry! Steam's up! Coal's precious! Can't
stay here burning diamonds like this all day!"

"Come on!" said the artilleryman. "I can sit down and dig. We've got to
clear that thing away in a hurry." A shell from a hidden blue battery
burst over the work