"What's happened?"

"What's happened, while you were asleep? Well, it will take a long time
to tell it, Mr. Rip Van Winkle. You have slept exactly a week, and in
the course of that time we fought a great battle with McClellan, were
defeated by him, chiefly owing to your comatose condition, and have
fallen back on Richmond, carrying you with us asleep in a wagon.
If you will look behind you you will see the spires of Richmond.
Oh, Harry! Harry! Why did you sleep so long and so hard when we needed
you so much?"

"Shut up, Tom. If ever talking matches become the fashion, I mean
to enter you in all of them for the first prize. Now, tell me what
happened while I was asleep, and tell it quick!"

"Well, me lad, since you're high and haughty, not to say dictatorial
about it, I, as proud and haughty as thyself, defy thee. George,
you tell him all about it." Dalton grinned. A grave and serious youth
himself, he liked Langdon's perpetual fund of chaff and good humor.

"Nothing has happened, Harry, while you slept," he said, "except that
the army, or at least General Jackson's corps, has been making ready for
a possible great battle. We're scattered along a long line, and General
Lee and General Longstreet are some distance from us, but our generals
don't seem to be alarmed in the least. It's said that McClellan will
soon be between us and Richmond, but I can't see any alarm about that
either."

"Why should there be?" said St. Clair, who was also sitting by. "It