Do you understand ?" Ward leaned forward and looked into the boy's face.

He took hold of John's arm as he pleaded, "Johnnie--boy--Johnnie, do you understand ?" The boy answered, "Yes, General--I think I get your meaning." He picked up his bridle, and Ward relaxed his hold on the boy's arm.

The man's hand dropped and he sighed, for he saw only a boy's face, and heard a boy's politeness in the voice that went on, "Thank you, General, give my love to Miss Lucy." And the youth rode on up the hill.
In a few minutes the boys were riding down the steep clay bank that led to the new iron bridge across the ford of the Sycamore, and for half an hour they rode chattering through the wood before they came into the valley and soon were Climbing the bluff which they had seen the night before from the Culpepper home.

On the brow of the bluff Bob said, "Hold on--" He turned his horse and looked back.

The sun was on the town, and across on the opposite hill stood the colonel's big house with its proud pillars.