“Is he?” quoth Old Dick. “Then, when we get to Cedarville I’ll send somebody to get that honey out of the gum tree! Now you go on, Gold, and get some more information.” The column marched through Front Royal. All of Front Royal that was there came out and wept and laughed and cheered, and dashed out to the ranks to shake hands, to clasp, to kiss. “Oh, don’t you remember, little more’n a year ago—and all the things that have happened since! The North Fork—and the burnt bridge—and Ashby at Buckton ... _Oh, Ashby!_ ... and the fight with Kenly—and the big charge—and Stonewall Jackson.... ‘_My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!_’” The column crossed the Shenandoah and came to Cedarville, where it rested for the night. Here there reported to Ewell Jenkins’s cavalry brigade. In the morning Old Dick sent this body of horse, together with Rodes’s division, across country to Berryville with instructions to capture or disperse McRennolds’s command, and then to press on to Martinsburg. Ewell himself, with Early and Edward Johnson’s divisions, took the road that led by Middletown and Nineveh to the Valley Pike. At Nineveh Allan Gold again appeared. “General, I’ve been almost into Winchester. Milroy has breastworks all around, and he’s well off in artillery. The hills west and northwest of the town command his works.” “All right, all right!” said Ewell. “Winchester’s going to see another battle.” On the morning of the thirteenth the column divided. Edward Johnson, with Nounnan’s cavalry force, keeping on upon the Front Royal and Winchester road, while Early’s division struck the Valley Pike at Newtown. The Valley Pike! The Valley soldiers—of whom there were a number in this division, though more in Edward Johnson’s—the Valley soldiers had last seen the Valley Pike in October—and now it was June. They had seen it in a glory of crimson and gold, and a violet haze of Indian summer, and then they had left it, Stonewall Jackson riding ahead ... and then had come Fredericksburg ... and then had come the Wilderness. “Howdy, Valley Pike!” said the soldiers. “It’s been long that we’ve been away! Did you miss us, old girl? We’ve missed you. A lot of us didn’t come back, but here’s some of us!” Through the hot afternoon Jubal Early and his troops moved down the pike toward Winchester. Near Bartonsville, in position upon a low hill, they found the First Maryland Infantry and the Baltimore Artillery. Colonel Herbert of the First reported. “They’ve got a force, sir, at Kernstown, and a battery on Pritchard’s Hill. We’ve been skirmishing off and on all day.” “All right!” swore Old Jube. “I’ll send the Louisiana Brigade and dislodge that battery.”