It took some little time to find the spring, which was not a spring after all, but merely a pool in a small brook. I hid myself by the side of the path and waited; soon I heard the rattling of empty canteens and the footsteps of a man; I started to meet him.
"Say, Mister, do you know whar that spring is?"
"I know where the water is," said I; "it's a branch."
"Gosh! Branch's brigade ort to have a branch."
"You must have come in a hurry," said I; "you are blowing."
"Blowin'? Yes; blowed if I didn't come in a hurry, and blowed if I did; you've hit it!"
"What regiment do you belong to?"
"Thirty-seventh."
"Is that Colonel Lane's?"
"No; Lane's is the Twenty-eight. Colonel Lee is our colonel."