“Hello, Rockford! Then you are really going, after all!” cried the clerk. “I’m glad to hear it. Rowe put you down as too cowardly, but I knew better and said so. Captain, Louis Rockford will sign.” “Another! The fortieth!” shouted Captain Paulding. He shook Louis by the hand. “Going in place of your poor father, I suppose. Soldiers, three cheers for our fortieth man, Louis Rockford.” And once more the cheers rang out, this time with an extra will, for Louis had many friends among the younger members of the company. But during the cheering Louis’s quick eye detected that Jerry Rowe’s lips did not move. Almost instinctively he felt that, though he had many friends in the company, he had also one enemy. Louis had had an easier time than he anticipated getting his parents to consent to his enlistment. The reason for this was that, now Mr. Rockford could not go, he felt the family should be in some way represented and had whispered as much to his wife during the moments when not in pain. And Mrs. Rockford had agreed, but with tears in her eyes, for her only son was sorely needed about the dairy, and the thought that he must go forth to meet great danger filled her with alarm. A deeply religious woman, she spent a night in prayer, then called Louis to her side, and kissing him fondly, told him to do his duty to his country. The days which followed the enlistment flew on wings, so much was there to do. Louis was called on each day to drill for three hours, from four o’clock to seven in the afternoon and evening--this time being chosen that the men might do a fair day’s work at home before commencing. At first he was put in the “awkward squad,” drilled by old Josiah Bruce, and rapidly taught how to stand at “attention,” how to “right face,” “left face,” “about face,” “mark time,” and “march.” This learned, he was given a gun and put through the manual of arms until he could handle the weapon as well as any of them. Louis’s earnestness was warmly approved by the old Mexican veteran. “You’re a born soldier, Louis,” he said one day when the drilling was over. “Keep on as you have begun and my word on it, you’ll come out of the war with shoulder-straps.” “Now I’ve started, I mean to do my best,” was the quiet answer, and those words told the whole story, as the chapters which follow will testify. At last came the day when the company was to start for Washington, that being then the objective point of all the Union troops. It was felt that if the South struck any blow at all it would be at our Capitol.