"It's a pity that men should kill each other over a drink of water when there's enough for all.

Has any man a handkerchief ?" "Here, sir," said Warner; "it's ragged and not very clean, but I hope it will do." The Colonel raised the handkerchief on the point of his sword and gave a hail.

The bulk of the two armies had passed on, and now there was silence in the woods as the two little forces confronted each other across the stream.
Dick saw a tall form in Confederate gray rise up from the bushes on the other side of the brook.
"Are you wanting to surrender ?" the man called in a long, soft drawl.
"Not by any means.

We want a drink of water, and we're just bound to have it." "You don't want it any more than we do, and you're not any more bound to have it than we are." The colonel hesitated a moment, and then, influenced by a generous impulse, said: "If you won't fire, we won't." The tall, elderly Southerner, evidently a colonel, also said: "It's a fair proposition, sir.

My men have been working so hard the last two days licking you Yanks that they're plum' burnt up with thirst." "I don't admit the licking, although it's obvious that you've gained the advantage so far, but is it agreed that we shall have a truce for a quarter of an hour ?" "It is, sir; the truce of the water, and may we drink well! Come on, boys!" Colonel Winchester gave a similar order to his men, and each side rose from the thickets, and made a rush for the brook.