Steve, stumbling back over the wet field, between the ranks of sleeping men, found Company A--that portion of it not with the skirmishers. Every soul was asleep. The men lay heavily, some drawn into a knot, others with arms flung wide, others on their faces. They lay in the dank and chilly dawn as though death had reaped the field. Steve lay down beside them. "Gawd! when will this war be over?" He dreamed that he was back at Thunder Run, crouching behind a certain boulder at a turn of the road that wound up from the Valley. He had an old flintlock, but in his dream he did not like it, and it changed to one of the beautiful modern rifles they were beginning to take from the Yankees. There were no Yankees on Thunder Run. Steve felt assured of that in his dream; very secure and comfortable. Richard Cleave came riding up the road on Dundee. Steve lifted the rifle to his shoulder and sighted very carefully. It seemed that he was not alone behind the boulder. A shadowy figure with a sword, and a star on his collar, said, "Aim at the heart." In the dream he fired, but before the smoke could clear so that he might know his luck the sound of the shot changed to clear trumpets, long and wailing. Steve turned on his side. "Reveille! O Gawd!" The men arose, the ranks were formed. _No breakfast?_--Hairston Breckinridge explained the situation. "We're going to breakfast in Winchester, men! All the dear old cooks are getting ready for us--rolls and waffles and broiled chicken and poached eggs and coffee--and all the ladies in muslin and ribbons are putting flowers on the table and saying, 'The Army of the Valley is coming home!'--Isn't that a Sunday morning breakfast worth waiting for? The sooner we whip Banks the sooner we'll be eating it." "All right. All right," said the men. "We'll whip him all right." "We're sure to whip him now we've got Steve back!" "That's so. Where've you been anyway, Steve, and how many did you kill on the road?" "I killed three," said Steve. "General Ewell's over thar in the woods, and he's going to advance 'longside of us, on the Front Royal road. Rockbridge 'n the rest of the batteries are to hold the ridge up there, no matter what happens! Banks ain't got but six thousand men, and it ought ter be an easy job--" "Good Lord! Steve's been absent at a council of war--talking familiarly with generals! Always thought there must be more in him than appeared, since there couldn't well be less--" "Band's playing! 'The Girl I Left Behind Me'!" "That's Winchester! Didn't we have a good time there 'fore and after Bath and Romney? 'Most the nicest Valley town!--and we had to go away and leave it blue as indigo--" "I surely will be glad to see Miss Fanny again--" "Company C over there's most crazy. It all lives there--" "Three miles! That ain't much. I feel rested. There goes the 2d! Don't it swing off long and steady? Lord, we've got the hang of it at last!"