At the top of the next hill they saw the regiment marching leisurely along at the foot of the hill. It was so unexpected a deliverance that it startled them. It seemed so long since they had left the regiment that it might have been clear back to Nashville. They yelled with all their remaining strength, and tore down the hill. Co. Q saw them at once, and at the command of the Captain came forward at the double-quick. The rebels had in the meanwhile gained the top of the hill. A few shots were fired at them as they turned from the chase. The Colonel rode back and questioned the boys. Then he turned to the Captain of Co. Q and said: "Captain, take your company over to that house. If you find anything that you think we need in camp, bring it back with you. Put these boys in the ambulance." The exhausted Si and Shorty were helped into the ambulance, the Surgeon gave them a reviving drink of whisky and quinine, and as they stretched themselves out on the cushioned seats Si remarked: "Shorty, we ain't ez purty ez we used to be, but we know a durned sight more." "I doubt it," said Shorty surlily. "I think me and you'll be fools as long as we live. We won't be fools the same way agin, you kin bet your life, but we'll find some other way." CHAPTER VIII. A PERIOD OF SELF-DISGUST SI AND SHORTY HAVE AN ATTACK OF IT, FOLLOWED BY RECOVERY. IT TOOK many days for the boys' lacerated feet to recover sufficiently to permit their going about and returning to duty. They spent the period of enforced idleness in chewing the cud of bitter reflection. The thorns had cut far more painfully into their pride than into their feet. The time was mostly passed in moody silence, very foreign to the customary liveliness of the Hoosier's Rest. They only spoke to one another on the most necessary subjects, and then briefly. In their sour shame at the whole thing they even became wroth with each other. Shorty sneered at the way Si cleaned up the house, and Si condemned Shorty's cooking. Thenceforth Shorty slept on the floor, while Si occupied the bed, and they cooked their meals separately. The newness of the clothes they drew from the Quartermaster angered them, and they tried to make them look as dirty and shabby as the old. Once they were on the point of actually coming to blows. Si had thoughtlessly flung some dishwater into the company street. It was a misdemeanor that in ordinary times would have been impossible to him. Now almost anything was. Shorty instantly growled:{110} "You slouch, you ought to go to the guard-house for that." Si retorted hotly: "Slouch yourself! Look where you throwed them coffee-grounds this morning," and he pointed to the tell-tale evidence beside the house. [Illustration: SHORTY AND SI ARE AT OUTS. 110] "Well, that ain't near so bad," said Shorty crustily. "That at least intended to be tidy."