"And coming into Virginia," said Sherburne. "Well, we can't help their
entering the state, but we can make it a very uncomfortable resting
place for them."

"How many men do you suppose they have?"

"A hundred thousand here at the least, and others must be crossing
elsewhere. But don't you worry, Harry. We've got seventy thousand men
of our own, and Lee and Jackson, who, as you have been told before,
are equal to a hundred thousand more. McClellan will march out again
faster than he has marched in."

"Still, he's shown more capacity than the other Union generals in the
East, and his soldiers are devoted to him."

"But he isn't swift, Harry. While he's thinking, Lee and Jackson have
thought and are acting. Queer, isn't it, that a young general should be
slow, and older ones so much swifter. Why, General Lee must be nearly
old enough to be General McClellan's father."

"It's so, Captain, but those men are crossing fast. Listen how the
cannon wheels rumble! And I know that a thousand whips are cracking
at once. They'll all be on our soil to-morrow."

"So they will, but long before that time we'll be back at General
Jackson's tent with the news of their coming."

"If nothing gets in the way. Do you remember that man whom we saw on
the hill watching, the one who I said was Shepard, the ablest and most
daring of all their spies?"