"Sing a song 'a vic'try, A pocketful 'a bullets, Five an' twenty dead men Baked in a--pie."Parts of the procession limped and staggered to this tune.
Another had the gray seal of death already upon his face.His lips were curled in hard lines and his teeth were clinched.His hands were bloody from where he had pressed them upon his wound.He seemed to be awaiting the moment when he should pitch headlong.He stalked like the specter of a soldier, his eyes burning with the power of a stare into the unknown.
There were some who proceeded sullenly, full of anger at their wounds, and ready to turn upon anything as an obscure cause.
An officer was carried along by two privates.
He was peevish."Don't joggle so, Johnson, yeh fool," he cried."Think m' leg is made of iron?
If yeh can't carry me decent, put me down an'
let some one else do it."
He bellowed at the tottering crowd who blocked the quick march of his bearers."Say, make way there, can't yeh? Make way, dickens take it all."They sulkily parted and went to the road-sides.As he was carried past they made pert remarks to him.When he raged in reply and threatened them, they told him to be damned.
The shoulder of one of the tramping bearers knocked heavily against the spectral soldier who was staring into the unknown.
The youth joined this crowd and marched along with it.The torn bodies expressed the awful machinery in which the men had been entangled.
Orderlies and couriers occasionally broke through the throng in the roadway, scattering wounded men right and left, galloping on fol-lowed by howls.The melancholy march was continually disturbed by the messengers, and sometimes by bustling batteries that came swing-ing and thumping down upon them, the officers shouting orders to clear the way.
There was a tattered man, fouled with dust, blood and powder stain from hair to shoes, who trudged quietly at the youth's side.He was lis-tening with eagerness and much humility to the lurid descriptions of a bearded sergeant.His lean features wore an expression of awe and ad-miration.He was like a listener in a country store to wondrous tales told among the sugar barrels.He eyed the story-teller with unspeak-able wonder.His mouth was agape in yokel fashion.
The sergeant, taking note of this, gave pause to his elaborate history while he administered a sardonic comment."Be keerful, honey, you 'll be a-ketchin' flies," he said.
The tattered man shrank back abashed.
After a time he began to sidle near to the youth, and in a different way try to make him a friend.His voice was gentle as a girl's voice and his eyes were pleading.The youth saw with surprise that the soldier had two wounds, one in the head, bound with a blood-soaked rag, and the other in the arm, making that member dangle like a broken bough.
After they had walked together for some time the tattered man mustered sufficient courage to speak."Was pretty good fight, wa'n't it?"he timidly said.The youth, deep in thought, glanced up at the bloody and grim figure with its lamblike eyes."What?""Was pretty good fight, wa'n't it?
"Yes," said the youth shortly.He quick-ened his pace.
But the other hobbled industriously after him.
There was an air of apology in his manner, but he evidently thought that he needed only to talk for a time, and the youth would perceive that he was a good fellow.
"Was pretty good fight, wa'n't it?" he began in a small voice, and then he achieved the forti-tude to continue."Dern me if I ever see fellers fight so.Laws, how they did fight! I knowed th' boys 'd like when they onct got square at it.
Th' boys ain't had no fair chanct up t' now, but this time they showed what they was.I knowed it 'd turn out this way.Yeh can't lick them boys.
No, sir! They're fighters, they be."
He breathed a deep breath of humble ad-
miration.He had looked at the youth for en-couragement several times.He received none, but gradually he seemed to get absorbed in his subject.
"I was talkin' 'cross pickets with a boy from Georgie, onct, an' that boy, he ses, 'Your fellers 'll all run like hell when they onct hearn a gun,'
he ses.'Mebbe they will,' I ses, 'but I don't b'lieve none of it,' I ses; 'an' b'jiminey,' I ses back t' 'um, 'mebbe your fellers 'll all run like hell when they onct hearn a gun,' I ses.He larfed.
Well, they didn't run t' day, did they, hey? No, sir! They fit, an' fit, an' fit."His homely face was suffused with a light of love for the army which was to him all things beautiful and powerful.
After a time he turned to the youth."Where yeh hit, ol' boy?" he asked in a brotherly tone.
The youth felt instant panic at this question, although at first its full import was not borne in upon him.
"What?" he asked.
"Where yeh hit?" repeated the tattered man.
"Why," began the youth, "I--I--that is--
why--I--"
He turned away suddenly and slid through the crowd.His brow was heavily flushed, and his fingers were picking nervously at one of his buttons.He bent his head and fastened his eyes studiously upon the button as if it were a little problem.
The tattered man looked after him in astonishment.
