no part in it, for he said in my hearing once that it was too big a
chunk to bite off.

There were letters from the count and Therese, his daughter. They
had news for me, and would I not ride over as soon as I had
returned? My mother--dearest and best of mothers--had written me,
and her tenderness cut me like a sword for the way I had neglected
her. Well, it is ever so with a young man whose heart has found a
new queen. I took the missive with wet eyes to our good
farmer-general of the North. He read it, and spoke with feeling of
his own mother gone to her long rest.

"Bell," said he, "you are worn out. After mess in the morning
mount your horses, you and the corporal, and go and visit them.
Report here for duty on October 16."

Then, as ever after a kindness, he renewed his quid of tobacco,
turning quickly to the littered desk at headquarters.

We mounted our own horses a fine, frosty morning. The white earth
glimmered in the first touch of sunlight. All the fairy lanterns
of the frost king, hanging in the stubble and the dead grass,
glowed a brief time, flickered faintly, and went out. Then the
brown sward lay bare, save in the shadows of rock or hill or forest
that were still white. A great glory had fallen over the
far-reaching woods. Looking down a long valley, we could see
towers of evergreen, terraces of red and brown, golden
steeple-tops, gilded domes minareted with lavender and purple and
draped with scarlet banners. It seemed as if the trees were
shriving after all the green riot of summer, and making ready for