vanquished cannot forget. His imagination was active and vivid, often
attaining truths that logic and reason do not reach, and he could
understand what had happened at the house, where the ordinary mind would
have been left wondering.

It is likely also that the sergeant had a perception of it, though not as
sharp and clear as Dick's.

"When the war is over and the soldiers all go back, that is them that's
livin'," he said, "it won't be them that fought that'll keep the grudge.
It's the women who've lost their own that'll hate longest."

"I think what you say is true, Whitley," said Dick, "but let's not talk
about it any more. It hurts."

"Me too," said the sergeant. "But don't you like this country that we're
ridin' through, Mr. Mason?"

"Yes, it's fine, but most of it has been cropped too hard. I remember
reading somewhere that George Washington himself said, away back in the
last century, that slave labor, so careless and reckless, was ruining the
soil of Virginia."

"Likely that's true, sir, but it won't have much chance to keep on
ruinin' it. Wouldn't you say, sir, that was a Johnny on his horse up
there?"

"I can soon tell you," said Dick, unslinging his glasses.

On their right was a hill towering above the rest. The slopes were