“I believe every word you say, Ohio,” said Warner, “since your statements are proved by the quality of the water. I could easily demonstrate it as a mathematical proposition.” “Don't you pay any attention to him, Ohio,” said Dick. “He's from Vermont, and he's so full of big words that he's bound to get rid of some of them.” “I'm not doubting you, Vermont,” said Ohio. “As you believe every word I said, I believe every word you said.” “There's nothing extraordinary about them things,” said another Ohio boy belonging to a different brigade, who was sitting near. “Do you know that we swallowed a whole river coming down here? We began swallowing it when we crossed the Ohio, just like a big snake swallowing a snake not quite so big, taking down his head first, then keeping on swallowing him until the last tip of his tail disappeared inside. It was a good big stream when we started, water up to our knees, but we formed across it in a line five hundred men deep and then began to drink as we marched forward. Of course, a lot of water got past the first four hundred lines or so, but the five hundredth always swallowed up the last drop.” “We marched against that stream for something like a hundred and fifty miles. No water ever got past us. We left a perfectly dry bed behind. Up in the northern part of the state not a drop of water came down the river in a month. We followed it, or at least a lot of us did, clean to its source in some hills a piece back of us. We drank it dry up to a place like this, only bigger, and do you know, a fellow of our company named Jim Lambert was following it up under the rocks, and we had to pull him out by the feet to keep him from being suffocated. That was four days ago, and we had a field telegram yesterday from a place near the Ohio, saying that a full head of water had come down the river again, three feet deep from bank to bank and running as if there had been a cloudburst in the hills. Mighty glad they were to see it, too.” There was a silence, but at length a solemn youth sitting near said in very serious tones: “I've thought over that story very thoroughly, and I believe it's a lie.” “Vermont,” said the first Ohio lad, “don't you have faith in my friend's narrative?”