you come again--thar'll be ice upon the creeks, I reckon." She drew her
shoulders together as though she shivered for all the May sunshine.
"Well, good-bye."

"I'll walk a piece of the road with you," said Allan, and the two went
out of the gate together.

Sairy, a pan of biscuits for dinner in her hand, looked after them.
"There's a deal of things I'd do differently if I was a man! What was
the use in sayin' that every time he looked at that thar bag he'd see
Thunder Run? Thunder Run ain't a-keerin' if he sees it or if he don't
see it! He might ha' said that every time he laid eyes on them roses
he'd see Christianna!--Thar's a wagon comin' up the road an' a man on
horseback behind. Here, I'll take the toll--"

"No, I'll take it myself," said Tom, reaching for the tobacco box which
served as bank. "If I can't 'list, I reckon I can get all the news
that's goin'!" He hobbled out to the gate. "Mornin', Jake! Mornin', Mr.
Robinson! Yes, 't is fine weather for the crops. What--"

"The Rockbridge companies are ordered off! Craig and Bedford are going,
too. They say Botetourt's time will come next. Lord! we used to think
forest fires and floods were exciting! Down there in camp the boys can't
sleep at night--every time a rooster crows they think it's Johnny
Mason's bugle and the order to the front! Ain't Allan Gold going?"

Sairy spoke from the path. "Course he's goin'--he and twenty more from
Thunder Run. I reckon Thunder Run ain't goin' to lag behind! Even Steve
Dagg's goin'--though I look for him back afore the battle. Jim's goin',
too, to see what he can make out of it--'t won't harm no one, I reckon,
if he makes six feet o' earth."

"They're the only trash in the lot," put in Tom. "The others are
first-rate--though a heap of them are powerfully young."

"Thar's Billy Maydew, for instance," said Sairy. "Sho! Billy is too
young to go--"

"All the cadets have gone from Lexington, remarked the man on horseback.
They've gone to Richmond to act as drill-masters--every boy of them with
his head as high as General Washington's! I was at Lexington and saw
them go. Good Lord! most of them just children--that Will Cleave, for
instance, that used to beg a ride on my load of hay! Four companies of
them marched away at noon, with their muskets shining in the sun. All
the town was up and out--the minister blessing them, and the people
crying and cheering! Major T. J. Jackson led them."

"The Thunder Run men are going in Rich