"Our regiment was sent to Corinth," answered Dick. "With a few others I was taken prisoner during the battle there. General Van Dorn sent us to Jackson, and from there we were to be taken by rail to Richmond, Virginia. For some reason the orders were changed, and we were marched on foot to your camp. What they intended to do with us is more than I know. I tell you, I was glad to be free again."
"You are so pale," said Jeanne, touching him gently. "Are you well, Dick?"
"Fine! Just need a good square meal to set me up all right," answered the boy cheerily. "I haven't had very much to eat since you girls set me free. Just what I could find in the woods. Herbs and wild grapes, and persimmons. I eat the green ones mostly."
"But why?" asked Jeanne mystified. "The ripe ones are ever so much better. I like them now, although I didn't at first."
"The green ones are best if you don't have much to eat," rejoined Dick. "They are fine to draw the stomach up to fit the supply. Say, Jeanne, don't you wish we had some of mother's doughnuts?"
"You poor, poor boy," cried Jeanne laughing, but there were tears in her eyes. "I wish we were where we could get them. Will the war last much longer, Dick?"
"I am afraid so," was the lad's reply. "The rebs have played the mischief this fall, and it looks as if all our work had to be done over again. Now, Jeanne, you go to sleep, or you won't be fit to travel to-morrow."
"Watch while you sleep. Never mind me. I am used to it. I have often stood guard, and can do it just as well as not."
"I don't believe that anything will bother us, brother. I wish you would sleep too."
Jeanne tried to obey him but sleep would not come to her. The dark pines were on all sides of them. The owls hooted dismally, and the chill wind sobbed and moaned fitfully in the pine trees. Presently Dick stooped over her.
"Yes, Dick. And I can't sleep a bit. Can't we talk, or walk, or do something?"
"We will walk," decided Dick. "I think that the horse must be rested by this time. What is his name?"
"Robert E. Lee," answered Jeanne in a hesitating tone fearing that Dick might not like the animal to be so called. "Bob called him 'Rel' for short, and so do I because I don't like the full name."