The Long Roll

d away. The mountain girls were pretty and fain, and matches were early made. Allan made none; he taught with conscientiousness thirty tow

ed by the marvellous mountain air, and look down over ridges of chestnut and oa

on against imaginary Indians. At last all were seated upon the rude benches in the dusky room,-small tow-headed Jacks and Jills, heirs to a field of wheat or oats, a diminutive tobacco patch, a log cabin, a piece of uncleared forest, or perhaps the blacksmith's forge, a small mountain store, or the sawmill down the stream. Allan read aloud the Parable of the Sower, and they all said the Lord's Prayer; then he called the Blue Back Speller class. The spelling done, they read from the same book about the Mar

you'll have to look after things and the women. And you girls must help your mothers all you can. It's going to be hard times, little folk! You've played a long time at fighting Indians, and latterly I've noticed you playing at fighting Yankees. Playtime's over now. It's time to work, to think, and to try to help. You can't fight for Virginia with guns and swords, but every woman and child, every young boy and old man in Virginia can make the hearts easier of those who go to fight. You be good boys and girls and do your duty here on Thunder Run, and God will count you as his soldiers just the same as if you were fighting down there in the valley, or before Richmond, or on the Potomac, or wherever we're going to fight. You're going to be good children; I know it!" He closed the book before him. "School's over now. When we take in again we'll

and, standing by Thunder Run, looked for awhile at the clear, brown water, then, with a long breath and a straightening of

active, standing at her ironing-board within the kitchen door. A cat purred in the sunshine, and all the lilac bushes were in bloom. "'Ten companies from this County,'" read the tollgate keepe

n sence last December! It's got to be sech a habit that I ketch myself waking up at night to listen. But I've

; at once the call was answered. We have had in Botetourt, as all over Virginia, as through all the Southern States, days of exciteme

e next year thar'll be more tears, I reckon, and less l

l of fife, heroic ardou

f-

hot and cold, to say one thing and do another, to fling our honour to the winds and to assist in coercing Sovereign States back into a Union which they find intolerable! It died in the moment when we saw, no longer the Confederation of Republics to which we had acceded, but a land whirling toward Empire. It is dead. There are no Union men to-day in Virginia. The ten Botetourt companies hold themselves under arms. At any moment may come the order to the front. The county has not spared her first-born

board. "If only we fight half as well as tha

and wrinkles, stared down upon and across the great view of ridge and spur and lovely valleys in between. The air at this height was clear and strong as wine, the noon sunshine bright, not hot, the murmur in the leaves

t Brother Dame meant by good comin

gate. She had upon her arm a small basket such as the mountain folk weave. "Good-mahnin

anna," answered the old man. "Co

ng that served for a pillar, and with her small, ill-shod feet just touching a bed of heartsease. She pushed back her sunbonnet. "Dave an' Billy told us good-bye yeste

iry. "Didn't he hav

staff, an' he went down the mountain so!" Her drawling voice died, then rose again. "I'll miss Billy-I surely will!" It failed again, and the heart

e all that stay at home air going to have our fill o

ittle bag of flowered chintz, roses and tulips, drawn up with a blue ri

' she gave me a big piece! an' I put it away in my picture box with my glass beads. For the ribbon-I'd saved a little o' my berry money, an' I walked to Buchanan an' bought it." She drew a long breath. "My land! 't was fine in the t

Sho! We've just got the little end,

hat was at Mr. Moelick's, but I didn't have enough. They'd be right useful, I reckon, to a soldier, but I couldn't

upon a horny hand. "Of course he'll have room for it! An' it's jest as pretty as

or him, and-and he would keep it always. Christianna listened, and then, with her eyes upon the heartsease, began to say good-bye in her soft, drawling voice. "You're going down the mountain to-day, Mrs. Cole says. Well, good-bye. An' pap'

ith you," said Allan, and the tw

n' 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 th

"If I can't 'list, I reckon I can get all the news that's goin'!" He hobbled out to the

xt. Lord! we used to think forest fires and floods were exciting! Down there in camp the boys can't sleep at night-

in't goin' to lag behind! Even Steve Dagg's goin'-though I look for him back afore the battle. Jim's goin

in Tom. "The others are first-rate-thou

nstance," said Sairy. "Sho!

ton'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 m

ny. He sets a heap o' store by Allan, an' wanted him for

but Allan's more dependable.-Well, go

n was going away, and she was making gingerbread because he liked it. The spicy, warm fragrance permeated the air, homely and pleasant as the curl of blue smoke abo

gourd of well-water to his lips. "Poor little th

res, held the knife suspended. "Have ye

nt with Christianna, and turned to the rude stair that led to his room in the half story. He was not kin to the tollgate keepers, but he had lived long with them and was very fond of both. "I'll be down

went about with a piece of pasteboard round their necks an' written on it, 'Pity the Bli

mething of a feast, with unusual dainties, and a bunch of lilacs upon the table. Sairy had on a Sunday apron. The three had not been silent either; they had talked a good deal, but without mu

ubt the propriety of taking it. It stood there neatly packed, the shirts that Sairy had been ironing laid atop. The young man, kneeling beside it, placed in this or that corner the last few articles of his outfit. All was simple, clean, and new-only the books that he was taking with him were old. They were his Bible, his Shakespeare, a volume of Plutarch's Lives, and a Latin book or two beside. In a place to themselves were other treas

fowling-piece or a Revolutionary flintlock, that the wonder is, not that they did so badly, but that they did so well. Pending the arrival of the uniforms the men had drilled in strange array. With an attempt at similarity and a picturesque taste of their own, most of them wore linsey shirts and big black hats, tucked up on one side with a rosette of green ribbon. One man donned his grandfather's Continental blue and buff-on the breast was a da

ack, knapsack, and canteen, cartridge-box and belt, and slung over the back of a chair was his roll of blanket. All was in readiness. Allan went over to the window. Below him were the flowers he had tended, then the great forests in their May freshness, cataracts of green, falling down, down to the valley. Over all hung the sky, divinely blue. A wind went rustling through the forest, joining its voice to the voice of Thunder Run. Allan knelt, touching with his forehea

from the house with that article upon his shoulder. "I reckon I'll volunteer myself, just as soon 's harvest's over," he remarked genial

d Allan. "I wish I had

y sharply. "That's what I'm afraid o

been like a son to us these five

iry. I'll take the best of care." He took the old woman in his arms. "You two have been

on the water level, the other much higher, with intersecting lanes. There were brick and frame houses, modest enough; there were three small, white-spired churches, many locust and

d still have done its utmost. From the Potomac to the Dan, from the Eastern Shore to the Alleghenies the flame of patriotism burned high and clear. There were skulkers, there were braggarts, there were knaves and fools in Virginia as elsewhere, but by comparison they were not many, and theirs was not the voice that was heard to-day. The mass of the people

old of his trunk, a passing volunteer in butternut, with a musket as long as Natty Bumpo's, hailed him, and a cluster of elderly men sitting with tilted chairs in the shade of a locust tree rose and gave him welcome. "It's Allan Gold from

sir," said Allan, "but I

to the loading of his wagons, showing Jim Ball and the drivers just how to do it-and

'This company's got the largest part of its provisions for the whole war right here and now,' says he. 'Thar's a heap of trunks,'

before persimmons are ripe! Why, the boys haven't volunteered but for

'This time two years we'll march lighter,' he says, says he, and then I came away. He's down by the old wareh

ore or less practised evolutions, the universal martial mood, the sense of danger over all, as yet thrilling only, not leaden, the known faces, the loved faces, the imminent farewell, the flush of g

in de lan

dar am not

look away!

four figures therein. They had not held them back; never in the times of history were there more devotedly patriotic women than they of the Southern States. They lent their plaudits; they were high in the thoughts of the men moving with precision beneath the

ay! loo

down South

ing, or playmate, or young, imperious, well-liked master in those gleaming ranks. Isaac, son of Abraham, or Esau and Jacob, sons of Isaac, marching with banners against Canaan or Moab, may have heard some such acclaim from the servants left behind. Several were going with the company. Captain and lieutenants, and more than one sergeant and corporal had their body-servants-these were

nd I'll tak

and die

ay! Loo

down South

ldiers ever sleep? There was not among them a man who had ever served in war, so the question remained unanswered. A Thunder Run man volunteered the information that the captain was asleep-he had been to the house where the captain lodged and his mother had come to the door with her finger on her lips, and he had looked past her and seen Captain Cleave lying on a sofa fast asleep. Thunder Run's comrades listened, but they rather doubted the correctness of his report. It surely wasn't very soldier-like to sleep-even upon a sofa-the night before marching away! The lieutenants weren't asleep. Hairston Breckinridge had a map spread out upon a bench before the post office, and was demonstrating to an eager dozen the indubitable fact that the big victory would be either at Harper's Ferry or Alexandria. Young Matthew Coffin was in love, and might be seen through the hotel window writing, candles all around him, at a table, covering one pale

and there were yet windows to sing beneath. Old love songs floated through the soft and dreamy air; there was a sense of angelic beings in the unlit rooms above, even of the flutter of their wings. Then, at the m

coldness was in the air, a mist arose from the river, there came a s

's braes

rly fa's

there that

her promi

wer street. There were syringas in bloom in the yard. A f

her pro

er forgot

g out. The order-the order-the order to the front! It ca

ain, lifted his arms-the men uncovered, the prayer was said, the blessing given. Again the bugle blew, the women cried farewell. The band played "Virgin