Page 129 - Among the camps, or, Young people's stories of the war

anything, but quietly went and got her a gJass of water.
His father^ talk had aged him.
For the first two years, the war did not make much

difference to Jack personally, It made a difference to the
country, and to the people, and to his mother, but not to
Jack individually, though it made a marked difference in
him. It made him older. His father's words never were
forgotten. They had sobered him and steadied him. He
had seen a good deal of the war. The troop trains passed

up the railroad, the soldiers cheering and shouting, filling
the cars and crowding on top of them J the army, or parts
of it, marched through the country by the county roads,
Camping in the woods and fields. Many soldiers stopped
at Jack’s home, where open house was kept, and everything

was gladly given to them. All the visitors now were sol’
diers. jack rode the gentlemen's horses to water, with Jake
behind him, if there was but one (in which case the horse
was apt to get several waterings), or galloping after him, if
there were more. They were hard riders, and got many

falls, for the young officers were usually well mounted, and
their horses were wild. But a fall was no disgrace. Jack
remembered that his father once said to him, when a colt
had thrown him, "A JI bold riders get falls; only, those do

not who ride tame horses.”
All the visitors were in uniform ; all the talk was of
w a r; all thoughts were of the Confederacy, Every one was
enthusiastic. No sacrifices were too great to be made. The