The wise young captain of the second company hazarded to the lieutenant-
colonel that the enemy's infantry would probably soon attack the hill,
and the lieutenant-colonel snubbed him.

A private in one of the rear companies looked out over the meadow, and
then turned to a companion and said, "Look there, Jim!" It was the
wounded officer from the battery, who some time before had started to
ride across the meadow, supporting his right arm carefully with his left
hand. This man had encountered a shell apparently at a time when no one
perceived him, and he could now be seen lying face downward with a
stirruped foot stretched across the body of his dead horse. A leg of the
charger extended slantingly upward precisely as stiff as a stake. Around
this motionless pair the shells still howled.

There was a quarrel in A Company. Collins was shaking his fist in the
faces of some laughing comrades. "Dern yeh! I ain't afraid t' go. If yeh
say much, I will go!"

"Of course, yeh will! You'll run through that there medder, won't yeh?"

Collins said, in a terrible voice: "You see now!" At this ominous
threat his comrades broke into renewed jeers.

Collins gave them a dark scowl, and went to find his captain. The
latter was conversing with the colonel of the regiment.

"Captain," said Collins, saluting and standing at attention--in those
days all trousers bagged at the knees--"Captain, I wan't t' get
permission to go git some water from that there well over yonder!"