There was incessant skirmishing between cavalry and pickets, but it did not seem to signify anything.

Banks, sure of his overwhelming numbers, pressed forward, but always cautiously and slowly.

He did not march into any trap.

And Harry surmised that Jackson, much too weak to attack, was playing for time.
Sherburne and his troop paused at the very base of the Massanuttons and Harry, who happened to be with them, looked up again at the lofty summits standing out so boldly and majestically in the middle of the valley.

The oaks and maples along their slopes were now blossoming into a green that matched the tint of the pines, but far up on the crests there was still a line of snow, and white mists beyond.
"Why not climb the highest summit ?" he said to Sherburne.