“Oh, don’t you? I do,” declared Jack. “I feel as if the blackberry bushes and sumachs and the trees all belong to me.”
“I hear a bugle call,” said Mary Lee. “We must be near the post.”
They soon drew up amid a line of carriages overlooking the parade ground where a body of cavalry went through the manœuvres. Horses dashed hither and thither, there was a clash of sabres, a flash of steel as the riders wheeled into position; then came the thud of horses’ hoofs as they responded to orders. At last, after a furious gallop and a mad slashing at pretended foes, the drill was over and the carriages turned away.
“I liked it,” cried Jack. “Wasn’t it exciting when they waved their sabres and went tearing around the field? I imagined them swooping down upon the Indians when they did that.”
“I saw one man thrown,” said Mary Lee, “and his horse just trotted off to his place in the stables quite as a matter of course. Wasn’t that sensible?”
The driver by whose side she was sitting smiled. “Dem beases has lots o’ sense, miss. Dese yer ones o’ mine don’ lak nothin’ bettah dan goin’ to one o’ dese yer drills. Dey knows jes’ as well when we turns fo’ de bridge. Did yuh see how dey kep’ a-lookin’ an’ a-lookin’ lak dey want ter be in de fiel’ deyselves?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t; I was so interested myself. I wish I had noticed them. They are nice horses,” she added; “so sleek and well kept.” It was a joy to her to discover a driver fond of his horses.
They drove on to Arlington, that fair estate, and all were silent as they went through the embowered avenues where lay the quiet soldiers who were at peace after great conflict. The elder girls and Miss Helen were more than usually moved, for the old home of the Lees had been that of their own kin, so they talked but little and were glad to pass out of the gates before the sunset gun gave notice of closing. Across the river arose the domes and spires of the capital city with the shaft of the monument white against the sky.
“We’re going up that to-morrow,” announced Jack.
“I’m not,” declared Jean; “I’m going to the Zoo with Mary Lee.”