The Little Regiment

w colour, a kind of blue which was so pale that a regiment might have been merely a long, low shadow in the mist. However, a muttering, one p

which were shifting with oily languor. A long row of guns upon the northern bank had been pitiless in their hatre

en, nervous roar, as if unable to endure in silence a knowledge of hostile troops massing, other guns going to position. These sounds, near and remote, defined an immense battle-ground, described the tremendous width of the stage of the pro

fear of the drops that would sweep in under their coat-collars. The fog was as cold as wet cloths. The men stuffed their hands deep in their pockets, and h

ed the number of hours they had been kept waiting. The general commanding their division rode along the ranks, and they cheered admiringly, affectionately, crying out to him gleeful prophecies of t

ith grey and blood-smeared faces, and eyes that rolled in that helpless beseeching for assistance from the sky which comes with supreme pain, the soldiers in the mud watched intently, and from time to time asked of the bearers an account of the affair. Frequently they bragged

ing his feet in the thick mass, and casting a vindictive gl

manner of his words implied that this frate

shut up?" de

n, taking no time to debate it; "

r to brother had swept across his chest, flown past his face, many times during two

t. They left their little town, and went forward with the flag, exchanging protestations of undying suspicion. In the camp life they so openly despised each

er frequently, because Dan, preposterously willing for any manner of combat, had a very great horror of seeing Billie in a fight; and Billie, almost odiou

predicted would almost come to pass. When Billie performed the same office for Dan, the prediction would again m

one time made full arrangement for it, but even with the encouragement and

all to appear at the headquarters, none would so genially prophesy his complete undoing as Dan. Small misfortunes to one we

in silence, while the dark blood rushed to Billie's forehead, and he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Dan at last found his tongue, and said: "Well, I'm durned!" If he had heard that an army mule had been appointed to the post

wore in the presence of his brother; and that Billie, whose oaths came from his lips with the grac

ng thing stirred in the mud. The men had hushed, and were looking across the river. A moment later the shadowy mass of pale blue figures was moving steadily toward the stream. Ther

he long whirling outcries of the shells came into the air above the men. An occasional solid shot struck the surface of the river, and dashed into view a sudden vertical jet. The distance was subtly illuminated by the lightning from the deep-booming guns. One b

th the planking. The dark, riddled walls of the town upreared before the troops, and from a region hidden by

ad called him a fool. In fact, he often called him a fool with exactly the same amount of cheerful and prompt conviction, and before large audiences, too. Billie wondered in his own mind why he took such profound offence in this case; but, at any rate, as he slid down the b

voices from the hills told him that in this wide conflict his life was an insignificant fact, and that his death would be an insignificant fact. They portended the whirlwind to which he would be as necessary as a butterfly's waved wing. The solemnity, the sadness of it came nea

g witches' croon of the shells came into the air. It enraged Billie when he felt the lit

ried up the slippery bank. As Billie floundered in the black mud, amid the swearing, sliding crowd, he suddenly resolved that, in the absence of other means of hurting Dan, he would avo

rearranges his clothing. Presently the great steel-backed brigade, an infinitely graceful thi

the town was indicated by thin flashes of flame. Some building was on