"That's bully," answered Shorty, much mollified. "Say, I've got an idee. D'you see that white thing over there? That's a wagon. The mules 've been taken away, and it's been standing there for an hour. I've seen the Lieutenants and the Orderly-Sergeant sneak back there, and I know what they're up to. They're goin' to sleep in the wagon. Of course, they're officers, and got the first pick. But we kin{92} lay down under it, and get out of the rain. Be sides, it looks as if the ground was drier up there than it is down here." They slipped quietly back to the wagon, and were lucky enough to find a little hay in the feed-box, which they could lay down to spread their blankets upon. They pulled the tail-gate off and set it up on the side from which the rain was coming. "There," said Shorty, as they crawled in. "Si, what'd you do without me? Ain't I a comfort to you every minute of your life?" "You certainly are, Shorty," said Si, as he fell asleep. CHAPTER VIII. A GLOOMY NEW YEAR'S DAY THE TWO ARMIES LIE FROWNING AT EACH OTHER. SI WAS awakened the next morning by the rain dashing down squarely on his upturned face. He was lying on the flat of his back, sleeping the sleep of the utterly outworn, and he got the full force of the shower. "Plague take it, Shorty," said he, kicking his snoring partner, "you're at your old tricks again scrougin' me out o' the tent while I'm asleep. Why can't you lay still, like a white man?" "It's you, dod rot you," grumbled Shorty, half-awakening. "You're at your old tricks o' kickin' the tent down. You need a 10-acre lot to sleep in, and then you'd damage the fence-corners." They were both awake by this time, and looked around in amazement. "We went to sleep nice and comfortable, under a wagon last night," said Shorty, slowly recalling the circumstances. "The two Lieutenants and the Orderly had the upper berth, and we slept on the ground-floor." "Yes," assented Si; "and someone's come along, hitched mules to our bedroom and snaked it off." "Just the way in the condemned army," grumbled Shorty, his ill-humor asserting itself as he sat up and looked out over the rain-soaked fields. "Never kin git hold of a good thing but somebody yanks it{94} away. S'pose they thought that it was too good for a private soldier, and they took it away for some Major-General to sleep under." [Illustration: A DISAGREEABLE AWAKENING FOR SHORTY AND SI. 94] "Well, I wonder what we're goin' to do for grub?" said Si, as his athletic appetite began to assert itself. "Our own wagons, that we had such a time guarding, are over there in the cedars, and the rebels are filling themselves up with the stuff that we were so good to bring up for them." "It makes me jest sizzle," said Shorty, "to think of all we went through to git them condemned wagons up where they'd be handiest for them." Si walked down the line toward where the Regimental Headquarters were established under a persimmon tree, and presently came back, saying: