The Shades of the Wilderness | Page 7

the young men.
"The Cajun band!" exclaimed Harry. "It never occurred to me that they
weren't all dead, and here they are, playing us into happiness!"
"And the Invincibles, or what's left of them, won't be far away," said
Dalton.
They walked on a little more briskly and beside them the vast length of
the unsuccessful army still trailed its slow way back into the South. The
sun was setting in uncommon magnificence, clothing everything in a
shower of gold, through which the lilting notes of the music came to
Harry and Dalton's ears. Presently the two saw them, the short, dark
men from far Louisiana, not so many as they had been, but playing
with all the fervor of old, putting their Latin souls into their music.
"And there are the Invincibles just ahead of them!" exclaimed Dalton.
"The two colonels have left the wagon and are riding with their men.
See, how erect they sit."
"I do see them, and they're a good sight to see," said Harry. "I hope
they'll live to finish that chess game."

"And fifty years afterward, too."
A shout of joy burst from the road, and a tall young man, slender, dark
and handsome, rushed out, and, seizing the hands of first one and then
the other, shook them eagerly, his dark eyes glittering with happy
surprise.
"Kenton! Dalton!" he exclaimed. "Both alive! Both well!"
It was young Julien de Langeais, the kinsman of Lieutenant-Colonel
Hector St. Hilaire, and he too was unhurt. The lads returned his grasp
warmly. They could not have kept from liking him had they tried, and
they certainly did not wish to try.
"You don't know how it rejoices me to see you," said Julien, speaking
very fast. "I was sad! very sad! Some of my best friends have perished
back there in those inhospitable Pennsylvania hills, and while the band
was playing it made me think of the homes they will never see any
more! Don't think I'm effusive and that I show grief too much, but my
heart has been very heavy! Alas, for the brave lads!"
"Come, come, de Langeais," said Harry, putting his hand on his
shoulder. "You've no need to apologize for sorrow. God knows we all
have enough of it, but a lot of us are still alive and here's an army ready
to fight again, whenever the enemy says the word."
"True! True!" exclaimed de Langeais, changing at once from shadow to
sunshine. "And when we're back in Virginia we'll turn our faces once
more to our foe!"
He took a step or two on the grass in time to the music which was now
that of a dance, and the brilliant beams of the setting sun showed a face
without a care. Invincible youth and the invincible gayety of the part of
the South that was French were supreme again. Dalton, looking at him,
shook his Presbyterian head. Yet his eyes expressed admiration.
"I know your feelings," said Harry to the Virginian.

"Well, what are they?"
"You don't approve of de Langeais' lightness, which in your stern code
you would call levity, and yet you envy him possession of it. You don't
think it's right to be joyous, without a care, and yet you know it would
be mighty pleasant. You criticize de Langeais a little, but you feel it
would be a gorgeous thing to have that joyous spirit of his."
Dalton laughed.
"You're pretty near the truth," he said. "I haven't known de Langeais so
very long, but if he were to get killed I'd feel that I had lost a younger
brother."
"So would I."
Two immaculate youths, riding excellent horses, approached them, and
favored them with a long and supercilious stare.
"Can the large fair person be Lieutenant Kenton of the staff of the
commander-in-chief?" asked St. Clair.
"It can be and it is, although we did not think to see him again so soon,"
replied Happy Tom Langdon, "and the other--I do not allude to de
Langeais-- is that spruce and devout young man, Lieutenant George
Dalton, also of the staff of the commander-in-chief."
"Why do we find them in such humble plight, walking on weary feet in
a path beside the road?"
"For the most excellent reason in the world, Arthur."
"And what may that reason be, Tom?"
"Because at last they have come down to their proper station in life, just
as surely as water finds its level."
"But we'll not treat them too sternly. We must remember that they also
serve who walk and wait."

But St. Clair and Langdon, their chaff over, gave them happy greeting,
and told them that the two colonels would be rejoiced to see them again,
if they could spare a few minutes before rejoining their commander.
"And here is