said, "Hold on--" He turned his horse and looked back. The sun was on
the town, and across on the opposite hill stood the colonel's big
house with its proud pillars. No trees were about it in those days,
and it and the Hendricks house stood out clearly on the horizon. But
on the top of the Culpepper home were two little figures waving
handkerchiefs. The boys waved back, and John thought he could tell
Ellen from her sister, and the night and its joy came back to him, and
he was silent.

They had ridden half an hour without speaking when Bob Hendricks said,
"Awful fine girls--aren't they?"

"That's what I've always told you," returned John.

After another quarter of a mile Bob tried it again. "The colonel's a
funny old rooster--isn't he?"

"Well, I don't know. That day at the battle of Wilson's Creek when he
walked out in front of a thousand soldiers and got a Union flag and
brought it back to the line, he didn't look very funny. But he's windy
all right."

Again, as they crossed a creek and the horses were drinking, Bob said:
"Father thinks General Ward's a crank. He says Ward will keep harping
on about those war bonds, and quarrelling because the soldiers got
their pay in paper money and the bondholders in gold, until people
will think every one in high places is a thief."

"Oh, Ward's all right," answered John. "He's just talking; he likes an
argument, I guess. He's kind of built that way."