"That won't last," said papa. "But there are always fluctuations in these things."
"Back in March," Mr. Dinwiddie went on, "there are reported two engagements in which our troops came off second best - at Newhern and at Winchester. It is difficult perhaps to know the exact truth - the papers on the two sides hold such different language. But the sixth of April there was a furious battle at Pittsburg Landing, our men headed by Beauregard, Polk and Sidney Johnston, when our men got the better very decidedly; the next day came up a sweeping reinforcement of the enemy under Grant and others, and took back the fortune of war into their own hands, it seems."
"Perhaps that is doubtful too," observed my father.
"I see Beauregard asked permission to bury his dead."
"Many killed?" asked my father.
"Terribly many. There were large numbers engaged, and fierce fighting."
So they can do it, I said to myself, amid all my heart- beating.
"There will be of course, some variation of success," said my father.
"The pendulum is swung all to one side, in these last news," said Mr. Dinwiddie.
"What next?"