TROOPERS CAMP AT MT. GRETNA.
After the flood of the day the valley was ankle deep in mud, and a more discouraging prospect than confronted the Troopers would be hard to imagine. No shelter had been prepared for them, nor could any be secured. By some mistake, on the part of others, their tents had not yet arrived from the State Arsenal. All buildings about the camp grounds were crowded with the constantly increasing throngs of infantrymen, each troop train upon its arrival adding to the thousands of shelterless soldiers.
A half dozen of the largest Troopers were sent out to forage, and while they were gone arrangements were made, through the courtesy of Captain Warburton, with the men of Battery A to share their tents for the night. The battery had arrived the day before and was comfortably located. Of course the doubling up of quarters caused crowding, but the grateful Troopers, wet and tired as they were, were soon dreaming their first soldier dreams, while the rain beat a mournful tattoo on the canvas overhead.
CHAPTER II.
THE TROOP AT MT. GRETNA.
Had the Troopers not known from experience that Mt. Gretna was an ideal spot for a camp, their impressions of the place, gained from observations taken the morning after their arrival, would have been disagreeable beyond expression. In the words of "Longfeller," as one Trooper expressed it, in a letter to the Press,
"We saw the tents of the others,
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness came o'er us,
That our hearts could not resist."