No trees were about it in those days, and it and the Hendricks house stood out clearly on the horizon.

But on the top of the Culpepper home were two little figures waving handkerchiefs.

The boys waved back, and John thought he could tell Ellen from her sister, and the night and its joy came back to him, and he was silent.
They had ridden half an hour without speaking when Bob Hendricks said, "Awful fine girls--aren't they ?" "That's what I've always told you," returned John.
After another quarter of a mile Bob tried it again.

"The colonel's a funny old rooster--isn't he ?" "Well, I don't know.

That day at the battle of Wilson's Creek when he walked out in front of a thousand soldiers and got a Union flag and brought it back to the line, he didn't look very funny.