The youth slowly. He came gradually back to a position from which he could regard himself. For moments he had been his person in a dazed way as if he had never before seen himself. Then he picked up his cap from the ground. He in his jacket to make a more comfortable fit, and kneeling relaced his shoe. He thoughtfully mopped his features.  
So it was all over at last! The trial had been passed. The red, formidable difficulties of war had been .
 
He went into an of self-satisfaction. He had the most sensations of his life. as if apart from himself, he viewed that last scene. He perceived that the man who had fought thus was magnificent.
 
He felt that he was a fine fellow. He saw himself even with those ideals which he had considered as far beyond him. He smiled in deep gratification.
 
Upon his fellows he beamed tenderness and good will. "! ain't it hot, hey?" he said affably to a man who was polishing his streaming face with his coat sleeves.
 
"You bet!" said the other, grinning . "I never seen sech dumb hotness." He out on the ground. "Gee, yes! An' I hope we don't have no more fightin' till a week from Monday."
 
There were some handshakings and deep speeches with men whose features were familiar, but with whom the youth now felt the bonds of tied hearts. He helped a cursing comrade to up a wound of the shin.
 
But, of a sudden, cries of broke out along the ranks of the new . "Here they come ag'in! Here they come ag'in!" The man who had sprawled upon the ground started up and said, "Gosh!"
 
The youth turned quick eyes upon the field. He discerned forms begin to in masses out of a distant wood. He again saw the flag speeding forward.
 
The shells, which had ceased to trouble the regiment for a time, came again, and exploded in the grass or among the leaves of the trees. They looked to be strange war flowers bursting into fierce bloom.
 
The men . The faded from their eyes. Their smudged now expressed a profound dejection. They moved their bodies slowly, and watched in mood the approach of the enemy. The slaves in the temple of this god began to feel rebellion at his harsh tasks.
 
They and complained each to each. "Oh, say, this is too much of a good thing! Why can't somebody send us supports?"
 
"We ain't never goin' to stand this second banging. I didn't come here to fight the damn' rebel army."
 
There was one who raised a doleful cry. "I wish Bill Smithers had trod on my hand, insteader me treddin' on his'n." The sore of the regiment creaked as it painfully floundered into position to .
 
The youth stared. Surely, he thought, this impossible thing was not about to happen. He waited as if he expected the enemy to suddenly stop, apologize, and retire bowing. It was all a mistake.
 
But the firing began somewhere on the regimental line and ripped along in both directions. The level sheets of flame developed great clouds of smoke that tumbled and tossed in the mild wind near the ground for a moment, and then rolled through the ranks as through a gate. The clouds were an earthlike yellow in the sunrays and in the shadow were a sorry blue. The flag was sometimes eaten and lost in this mass of , but more often it projected, sun-touched, resplendent.
 
Into the youth's eyes there came a look that one can see in the of a horse. His neck was quivering with nervous weakness and the muscles of his arms felt and bloodless. His hands, too, seemed large and awkward as if he was wearing invisible . And there was a great about his knee joints.
 
The words that comrades had uttered previous to the firing began to to him. "Oh, say, this is too much of a good thing! What do they take us for--why don't they send supports? I didn't come here to fight the hull damned rebel army."
 
He began to exaggerate the endurance, the skill, and the of those who were coming. Himself reeling from , he was astonished beyond measure at such . They must be machines of steel. It was very gloomy struggling against such affairs, wound up perhaps to fight until sundown.
 
He slowly lifted his rifle and a glimpse of the thickspread field he blazed at a cantering cluster. He stopped then and began to peer as best as he could through the smoke. He caught changing views of the ground covered with men who were all running like pursued , and yelling.
 
To the youth it was an onslaught of dragons. He became like the man who lost his legs at the approach of the red and green monster. He waited in a sort of a , listening attitude. He seemed to shut his eyes and wait to be gobbled.
 
A man near him who up to this time had been working at his rifle suddenly stopped and ran with howls. A lad whose face had borne an expression of courage, the of he who dares give his life, was, at an instant, . He like one who has come to the edge of a cliff at midnight and is suddenly made aware. There was a revelation. He, too, threw down his gun and fled. There was no shame in his face. He ran like a rabbit.
 
Others began to away through the smoke. The youth turned his head, shaken from his trance by this movement as if the regiment was leaving him behind. He saw the few forms.
 
He yelled then with fright and swung about. For a moment, in the great clamor, he was like a proverbial chicken. He lost the direction of safety. Destruction threatened him from all points.
 
Directly he began to speed toward the rear in great leaps. His rifle and cap were gone. His unbuttoned coat in the wind. The flap of his box bobbed wildly, and his canteen, by its slender cord, swung out behind. On his face was all the horror of those things which he imagined.
 
The sprang forward . The youth saw his features wrathfully red, and saw him make a with his sword. His one thought of the incident was that the lieutenant was a creature to feel interested in such matters upon this occasion.
 
He ran like a blind man. Two or three times he fell down. Once he knocked his shoulder so heavily against a tree that he went headlong.
 
Since he had turned his back upon the fight his fears had been magnified. Death about to thrust him between the shoulder blades was far more dreadful than death about to him between the eyes. When he thought of it later, he conceived the impression that it is better to view the than to be merely within hearing. The noises of the battle were like stones; he believed himself liable to be crushed.
 
As he ran on he with others. He dimly saw men on his right and on his left, and he heard footsteps behind him. He thought that all the regiment was fleeing, pursued by those crashes.
 
In his flight the sound of these following footsteps gave him his one relief. He felt that death must make a first choice of the men who were nearest; the initial for the dragons would be then those who were following him. So he displayed the of an insane in his purpose to keep them in the rear. There was a race.
 
As he, leading, went across a little field, he found himself in a region of shells. They hurtled over his head with long wild screams. As he listened he imagined them to have rows of cruel teeth that grinned at him. Once one lit before him and the livid lightning of the explosion effectually barred the way in his chosen direction. He groveled on the ground and then springing up went careering off through some bushes.
 
He experienced a thrill of amazement when he came within view of a battery in action. The men there seemed to be in conventional moods, altogether of the annihilation. The battery was disputing with a distant and the gunners were wrapped in of their shooting. They were continually bending in over the guns. They seemed to be patting them on the back and encouraging them with words. The guns, and undaunted, with dogged valor.
 
The precise gunners were coolly enthusiastic. They lifted their eyes every chance to the smoke-wreathed hillock from whence the hostile battery addressed them. The youth pitied them as he ran. Methodical idiots! Machine-like fools! The refined joy of planting shells in the midst of the other battery's formation would appear a little thing when the came out of the woods.
 
The face of a youthful rider, who was jerking his frantic horse with an abandon of temper he might display in a barnyard, was impressed deeply upon his mind. He knew that he looked upon a man who would presently be dead.
 
Too, he felt a pity for the guns, standing, six good comrades, in a bold row.
 
He saw a brigade going to the relief of its fellows. He upon a wee hill and watched it finely, keeping formation in difficult places. The blue of the line was crusted with steel color, and the brilliant flags projected. Officers were shouting.
 
This sight also filled him with wonder. The brigade was hurrying briskly to be into the infernal mouths of the war god. What manner of men were they, anyhow? Ah, it was some breed! Or else they didn't comprehend--the fools.
 
A furious order caused in the . An officer on a bounding horse made motions with his arms. The teams went swinging up from the rear, the guns were whirled about, and the battery away. The with their noses slantingly at the ground and like men, brave but with objections to hurry.
 
The youth went on, moderating his pace since he had left the place of noises.
 
Later he came upon a general of division seated upon a horse that its ears in an interested way at the battle. There was a great gleaming of yellow and patent leather about the saddle and . The quiet man astride looked mouse-colored upon such a splendid charger.
 
A staff was hither and . Sometimes the general was surrounded by horsemen and at other times he was quite alone. He looked to be much . He had the appearance of a business man whose market is swinging up and down.
 
The youth went slinking around this spot. He went as near as he dared trying to overhear words. Perhaps the general, unable to comprehend , might call upon him for information. And he could tell him. He knew all concerning it. Of a surety the force was in a fix, and any fool could see that if they did not retreat while they had opportunity--why--
 
He felt that he would like to thrash the general, or at least approach and tell him in plain words exactly what he thought him to be. It was criminal to stay calmly in one spot and make no effort to stay destruction. He loitered in a fever of eagerness for the division commander to apply to him.
 
As he moved about, he heard the general call out : "Tompkins, go over an' see Taylor, an' tell him not t' be in such an all-fired hurry; tell him t' halt his brigade in th' edge of th' woods; tell him t' detach a reg'ment--say I think th' center 'll break if we don't help it out some; tell him t' hurry up."
 
A slim youth on a fine horse caught these swift words from the mouth of his superior. He made his horse bound into a almost from a walk in his haste to go upon his mission. There was a cloud of dust.
 
A moment later the youth saw the general bounce excitedly in his saddle.
 
"Yes, by heavens, they have!" The officer leaned forward. His face was aflame with excitement. "Yes, by heavens, they 've held 'im! They 've held 'im!"
 
He began to roar at his staff: "We 'll wallop 'im now. We 'll wallop 'im now. We 've got 'em sure." He turned suddenly upon an aide: "Here--you--Jones--quick--ride after Tompkins--see Taylor--tell him t' go in--everlastingly--like blazes--anything."
 
As another officer sped his horse after the first messenger, the general beamed upon the earth like a sun. In his eyes was a desire to chant a . He kept repeating, "They 've held 'em, by heavens!"
 
His excitement made his horse , and he merrily kicked and swore at it. He held a little of joy on horseback.