The was at order arms at the side of a lane, waiting for the command to march, when suddenly the youth remembered the little packet enwrapped in a faded yellow envelope which the loud young soldier with words had intrusted to him. It made him start. He uttered an and turned toward his comrade.  
"Wilson!"
 
"What?"
 
His friend, at his side in the ranks, was thoughtfully staring down the road. From some cause his expression was at that moment very . The youth, regarding him with sidelong glances, felt to change his purpose. "Oh, nothing," he said.
 
His friend turned his head in some surprise, "Why, what was yeh goin' t' say?"
 
"Oh, nothing," repeated the youth.
 
He resolved not to deal the little blow. It was sufficient that the fact made him glad. It was not necessary to knock his friend on the head with the misguided packet.
 
He had been of much fear of his friend, for he saw how easily questionings could make holes in his feelings. Lately, he had assured himself that the altered comrade would not him with a curiosity, but he felt certain that during the first period of leisure his friend would ask him to relate his adventures of the previous day.
 
He now rejoiced in the possession of a small weapon with which he could his comrade at the first signs of a cross-examination. He was master. It would now be he who could laugh and shoot the of derision.
 
The friend had, in a weak hour, spoken with of his own death. He had delivered a previous to his funeral, and had doubtless in the packet of letters, presented various keepsakes to relatives. But he had not died, and thus he had delivered himself into the hands of the youth.
 
The latter felt immensely superior to his friend, but he inclined to . He adopted toward him an air of patronizing good humor.
 
His self-pride was now restored. In the shade of its flourishing growth he stood with and self-confident legs, and since nothing could now be discovered he did not shrink from an encounter with the eyes of judges, and allowed no thoughts of his own to keep him from an attitude of manfulness. He had performed his mistakes in the dark, so he was still a man.
 
Indeed, when he remembered his fortunes of yesterday, and looked at them from a distance he began to see something fine there. He had to be and veteranlike.
 
His panting agonies of the past he put out of his sight.
 
In the present, he declared to himself that it was only the and the damned who roared with at circumstance. Few but they ever did it. A man with a full stomach and the respect of his fellows had no business to scold about anything that he might think to be wrong in the ways of the universe, or even with the ways of society. Let the unfortunates rail; the others may play marbles.
 
He did not give a great deal of thought to these battles that lay directly before him. It was not essential that he should plan his ways in regard to them. He had been taught th............