The Guns of Bull Run

a heap and kindled a fire. The night, as usual, was cool, but the pleasant flames dispelled the chill, and the cove was v

rm inside you to make you feel good," said Jarvis. "Ike, you lunkhead, hurr

hrowing out savory odors. Jarvis took a small flat skillet from the boat and fried the corn cakes. Harry fried bacon and

. "You don't know what a genuine appetite is until you live under the blue sky by day, and a s

d the fire became a great bed of coals, glowing in the darkness, and making a circle of light, the edges of which touched the boat. Harry found that Jarvis was telling the truth. The long work and the cool night a

etching his long length and sighing with content.

st," sai

tain, lingering fall

untain breaks t

endor, where the warm

tender, speak th

Ask thy soul i

a! Lean thou

s. Time and place and the voice of Jarvis, with its haunting quality, threw a spell over Harry. The present rolled away. He was

ve where the glowing bed of coals cast a circle of light. The Kentucky, showing a faint tinge of blue, flowed with a soft murmur. Harry

ng, moons like thes

aming prove thy

lenting, for thy

onsenting to a

, let me linge

, be thou my o

ast. Lying there in the gorge, with only the river to be seen, the wilderness came back, and the whole land was clo

ight, is it, Harry?" he said. "Always p

ry-they had already fallen into the easy habi

er, an' it sounds best when you are out at night on a river like this. Harry, I know that you're goin' through our mountins to git to Richmond an' the war. Me an' that lunkhead Ik

head, but he w

ask me," he said, "bu

leavin' the invite open. Ef you change your mind on the trip all you

ded. His uncle look

talk an' he never puts in, but agrees with all you say. Now, fellers, we'll put o

r a while. He sat up in his blankets and looked around. A mere mass of black coals showed where t

d voices and saw a light. Then he remembered the rope ferry and he had no doubt that some one was crossing, although it was midnight

" he asked i

ver at the ferry above,

e seem bound to fight, when they could have a lot more fun at home. Jest let Ike sleep o

e the hills on either side dipped low. As they drew near, they heard many voices and the lights

to the boy. "They ain't no enemies o' ours, but I guess we'd better keep out o' their

on the part of those who were crossing the stream. They numbered at least two hundred men, and all had arms and horses, although they were dismounted now, and the hor

slouch hats and were wrapped in heavy, dark cloaks. They stood with their backs to him, and although they seemed to be taking no part

ed the three men to turn. Harry started and checked an exclamation

know 'em, Har

called him the handsomest man in the United States. He was a guest at my father's house last year when he was runnin

kinri

n C. Brec

an I expected. He don

on once. He's a great horseman. The third, the slender man who looks as if he were all fire, is named Duk

ese are yo

they are

nd so warm a place in his heart, and hesitated, but o

bbe not by the same road, now is your time to join 'em, 'stead o' workin' your way 'cr

that they're not going where I mean to go, and where I should go. I'm

e, boy," s

tains, and that he had given him his sacred promise. He understood what a powerful pull the sight of Breckinridge,

oat, reached the farther shore and the whole company rode away in the darkne

ied, I think we'd better go

weighed, farew

eyes open. I've seen the horsemen ridin' in the night, an' I see 'em by the thous

od men, brave

th ain't dreamed of yet. But sho! What am I runnin' on this way fur? That lunkhead, Ike, my nephew, ain't such a lunkhead as he looks. Them that say nothin' ain't never got not

a good pace toward the southeast. They were hailed two or three times from the bank by armed men, whether of the North or South Harry could not tell, but when they r

ed by five or six pistols, an' that at least two of us, meanin' me a

as not a man who could retain anger lon

om my cot at the

the beaut

ine shade I esp

y complained

Sam," said Harry, "a

s comin' tonight; that is, if them clouds straig

ut Jarvis first steered the boat under the edge of a high bank, where it was protected partly, and they stretched the strong canvas b

. It was good to see the storm seek them, and yet not find them-behind their canvas cover. He remained close in his place and stared out at the foaming surface of the water. Back went his thoughts again to the far-off troubled time, when th

k, an' I've felt 'em still stronger way up in the mountains, where nothin' of the old days is gone 'cept the Injuns. Ike, I guess it's cold grub for us tonight. We can't cook anyth

away when the

orm was ro

him down in

ght of an

flashed and the

with its f

r passed on th

o'er the ro

voice with the accompaniment of storm, the water before them, the lightning blazing at intervals, and the thunder rol

too, from a wandering

ng it when the night is behavin' jest as it's doin' now. I ain't ever seen the sea, Harry

you were on it then. I like it be

he river were very high, Harry felt as if they were in a black canyon. He could see but dimly the surface of the river. All else was lost in the heavy gloom. But the boat had been

in' fur miles, an' if there was a crossin' people wouldn't use that crossin' nohow on a night like this. So, boys,

but they did not awake until the young sun sent the first beams of day into the gorge. Then Jarvis sat up. He had the faculty of aw

orld it is! Here's the river all washed clean, an' the land all washed clean,

now of Hallie,

of her is one

eping in

bird is singin

king bird, singin

bird, singing where th

for one who is as cheerful

Harry. They jest fill me with a kind o' longin' to reach out an' grab somethin'

l I yet

ed in the cott

the mild

bird was singi

to the mo

ging o'er

to the mo

here the weepin

r in my life than I did when I was singin' it. Here you are, breakfast all

ountry outspread before them, a vast mass of shimmering green. The rain had ceased entirely, but the whole earth was sweet

s muscles the same quality like steel wire which those of Jarvis and Ike had. So they went on for that day and others and drew near to

it their claims before they make 'em, but my true love, it's the mountains an' my mountain home. Mebbe some

eyes kin

I want the

s lau

aim ag'inst you, less it's that lunkhead, Ike, my

nned an

night came they had left the lowlands several miles behind. They tied up to a great beech growing almost at the water's edge, and made their camp on the ground. Harry's deer did not come that night, but it did on the following one. Then Jarvis and he after supper went about a mile

rvis, "an' we do need this one. We'll broil strips of him o

do

ll the aspects of a complete wilderness. Now and then they saw smoke, which Jarvis said was rising from the chimneys of log cabins, and once or twice they saw cabins themselves in sheltered nooks, but nobody hailed them. The

e home full handed in every respect, and his great tenor boomed out joyously over the stream, speeding away in echoes among the lofty peaks and ridges that had now turned from hills into real mountains. They

. He could go thus for miles without feeling any weariness. Naturally very strong, he did not realize how much his work at the oar was increasing his power. The thin vit

out them, a half mile over their heads, covered from base to crest with unbroken forest. Sometimes the creek flowed betw

an' the things with him, an' we'd have walked the rest of the way, but the creek is so high now that we kin make at least twenty miles more an' tie up at Bil

cabin, a wife and two small children. He volunteered gladly to take care of the boat and its b

kfort, and of the war in the lowlands concerning which they had heard vaguely. Rudd had been to Frankfort once and felt hi

nto Virginia on some business of his own wh

with a feeling as if walls were pressing down upon him, and he could not breathe. He arose, opened t

rain an' snow I'd do without roofs 'cept in winter. Leave the door wide open, an' we'll both sleep better. Nothin', of course, would wake that lu

ek at this point, and he and Ike would return in due time for their own possessions. They followed a foot

enin'," said Jarvis. "The ten miles befo

as they swung along in Indian file at a swift and easy gait, his joyous spirits bubbled forth anew. Lifti

the good o

s are all

that the ne

le old Rosi

ed this coun

the next

hat good qua

old Rosin

ow how you got that son

t least five spots in which I've killed deer. You kin trap lots of small game all through here in the winter, an' the furs bring good prices. Oh, the mountains ain't so bad. Look! See the smoke over that low ridge, the thin black

led and

ed out before them. The smoke still rose from the house, which they now saw clearly, standing among its trees. A brook glinting with gold in the s

n's straight an' right. Ike, I think I see Jane, your mo

gorously on the porch. The travelers descended rapidly, crossed the brook, and approached the house. A strong woman of midd

e porch and the bent little figure in the chair. As they went up the steps together old Aunt Suse suddenly straightened up and stood erect. A pair of extraordinary black ey

e! It is a long time since I've seen you

ter, Aunt Suse?" ask

was the great defender of the frontier against the Indians! But

ger which she held aloft and he felt as if an electric current were passing from it to him. A chi

e said. "This house is

e old woman dreaming in the sun had returned to the far pa

"but I'm proud to say that I'm his great-

r sank, but the light

lood, and the spirit is the same. It does not matter.

ed to the open door. Jarvis laughed, but it

he was near your age. I've heard her tell tales about him by the mile. Aunt Suse, you know, is more'n a hundred, an' she's got the double gift o' lookin' forrard an' back'ard. Come o

able home of Samuel Jarvis. He would have limited the time to a single day, because Richmond was calling to him very strongly now, bu

, but old Aunt Suse had already gone to bed. Throughout the day she had called Harry sometimes by his own na

light, like gauze, hung over the valley, tinting the high green heads of the near and friendly mountains, and giving a wonderful

told you, she knowed Boone an' Kenton an' Logan an' Henry Ware an' all them gran' hunters an' fighters. She was in Lexin'ton nigh on to eighty years ago, when she saw Dan'l Boone an' the rest that lived through our awful defeat at the Blue L

of Henry Ware's great friend

s him that started the big university at Lexin'ton, an' that become the greatest scholar this state ever knowed. I've heard that he learn

a Ph. D. and all sorts of learned things-could not only speak eight languages, but he knew also so many other thin

s whi

with what old Aunt Suse says. Paul Cotter was always huntin' fur

d in two cases their grandchildren intermarried. A boy of my own age named Di

' of an inquirin' min', I'd like to

his hand tow

somewhere,

h the North, took one side w

rt, where he had come from the Northern camp in Garrard County, but I think he left for the East before

. At length he drew the stem from his mouth, blew a r

he Dutch how th

d questioni

Aunt Suse, bein' who she is, an' that cousin of yours, Dick Mason, d

ast flood of misty, silver light over the little valley, hemmed in by its high mountains, and Harry was so affected by the