United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
"Look!" cried Cary, springing to his feet in spite of the danger in
which his gray uniform placed him. "Here come the field pieces. In a
minute now the dogs will begin to bark."
With a roar of wheels and a clash of harness and accouterments the guns
rushed by while the child stared and stared, her big eyes almost
starting out of her face.
"The dogs!" she said in wonder. "There wasn't a single dog there!"
"Another kind of dog," her father said with a meaning look. "And their
teeth are _very_ long. Ah! There they go! Over yonder on the hill--in
the edge of the woods. The Yankee dogs are barking. Now listen for the
answer."
Together they listened, father and daughter, with straining
ears--listened for the defiant reply of those men who, being Americans,
were never beaten until hunger and superior numbers forced them to the
wall.
"Boom!" A great, ear-filling sound crashed over the hills and rolled,
echoing, through the woods.
"That's us! That's us!" the man cried out exultantly, while he caught
the child closer in his arms. "Hear our people talking, honey? Hear 'em
talk!"
But overhead something was coming through the air and the child shrank
down in terror--something that whined and screamed as it sped on its
dreadful way and seemed like a demon out of hell searching for his prey.
"Lord a' mercy, Daddy!" the child cried out. "What's _that_?"
He patted her head consolingly. "Nothing at all but a shell. They sound
much worse than they really are. Don't be afraid. Nothing will hurt
you."
From the forks of the road the sound of volley firing grew stronger and,
as if in response, the road to the Union rear now turned into a stream
of living blue, with cavalry madly galloping and sweating infantry
hurrying forward as fast as their legs could carry them.
"Look, Virgie, look!" her father cried, holding her head a little way
above the wall. "See those bayonets shining back there across the road.
A whole regiment of infantry. And they're going up against our _men
across an open field!_ By Jiminy, but those Yanks will get a mustard
bath. Ah-hah!" he chortled, as a roar of musketry broke out. "I told you
so! Our boys are after them. Good work! Good work!"
But again a shell passed over them and again the world was filled with
that awful whining, shrieking sound.
"Daddy," the child cried, with quivering lips, but still dry eyed. "I
don't _like_ those things. I don't _like_'em."
"There, there, darling," he comforted as they shrank closer under the
protection of the wall. "Keep down under my arm and they won't bother
you."
As he spoke a twig with a fresh yellow break in it fell from a tree and
struck his upturned face. He winced at the thought that the bullet
might have flown a few feet lower. And meanwhile the sound of the firing
came steadily closer.
"By Jove!" he murmured to himself, "it's a bigger rumpus than I
thought."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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