The Little Regiment

grey, still grinning, announced, "I knowed you'd holler." Sit

her hand up to her throat. "Oh!"

en I seen you coming yere, but I raikoned we couldn't help it no way. We hain't a-troubling this yere bar

om? Did-did you escape

ll stammered

two mile. And Bill yere they gin it to him in the arm, kehplunk. And they pasted me thar, too. Curious, And Si

ho passed here just no

There was a mighty big swarm of Yanks and a mighty big

diversity. One soldier wore the little blue cap of the Northern infantry, with corps emblem and regimental number; one wore a great slouch hat with a wide hole in the crown; and the other wore no hat at all. The left sleeve of one man and the right sleeve of another had b

y father in the arm

n-his n

nned again, but they r

t never. What is

He and my uncle Asa an

re all with Longst

rt ways from yere. 'Way off up nawtheast. There hain't nothi

hing from them for day

he infantry don't do much fighting. They go bellering out in a big swarm a

ithout intention. "Are

y some sudden and singular shame. They hung

, and there was something about his eyes and his forelock which created the impression that he wore spectacles. Mary went a

hat passel of Yanks was only a scouting crowd, m

," cried the girl eagerly. "Won'

, "we hain't had much. If you could bring

reached it she stopped abruptly. "Listen!" she whispered. Her form was bent forward, h

ing of many hoofs, the clank of a

mbled to their feet and came toward the door.

ted by tree trunks and a little henhouse. However, they could see many horsemen streaming down th

edly. "Maybe they're going along by. No, by thu

ide? Where'll we hide? There hain't a place to hide!" The girl turned and glanced wildly about the barn. It seemed true. The stock of hay had grown low under Santo's e

at feed-box. She ran to

she called.

get in at the same moment without a good deal of a tangle. The wounded men gasped and muttered, but they at last were flopped down on

survey the situation. The troopers had dismo

two or three others. They wore double-breasted coats, and faded yellow sashes were wound under their bl

knot-hole near the top, and said to her very plainly, "Come closer." She obeyed, and then a muffled voice co

she said to

d just before she reached the point where she could have been seen by the blue-coated trooper

ection at the instant. The grey-bearded officer forgot to lo

ng, she believed, was suddenly grown awkward and ungainly. Upon her face she thought

emed about to run away. But the soldier doffed his little blu

she a

, and as we've got two wounded men with us I don

n the

ssuringly. "You needn't be frightened. We won't hu

fro in the grass. She was looking down at it. "But-but

he wouldn't." He reflected for a time and then decided cheerfully: "W

in the house. She-she'll be sc

soldier, always wearing a benign smile.

mpty. "Ma!" she called softly. There was no answer. The kettle still was h

of coverings. "Ma!" called the girl, quaking in fear that her mother was not there to reply. But there was a sudden turmoil of the q

a thousand Yankees in the yard, and I've

rance of her daughter had begun to thras

nt to use the barn-and our men in the feed

bed was she in her grievous flounderings

g, her lips apart, her eyes fixed. Then

e gazing at a small body of horsemen approaching at a trot and raising much dust. Presently she recognised them as the squad that had passed the hou

rse and his brown hand moved in a salute. The girl could not hear his reply. She saw the unarmed horseman in grey stroking a very black moustache and looking about him coolly and with an interested air. He appeared so

re of horror, remembering th