"Lord!" said Stephen in a low, surprised voice, "did you fellows
know that the whole army was near here?"
"Not I," said Berkley, gazing spellbound out across the rolling
panorama of river, swamp, woods, and fields. "I don't believe it
occurs very often, either--the chance to see an entire army all at
once, encamped right at your feet. What a lot of people and
animals!"
They sat down, cross-legged, enjoying their pie, eyes wandering
wonderingly over the magic landscape. Here and there a marquee
marked some general's headquarters, but except for these there were
no tents save shelter tents in sight, and not so many of these,
because many divisions had bivouacked, and others were in
cantonments where the white cupola of some house glimmered, or the
thin spire of a church pierced green trees.
Here and there they noted and pointed out to each other roads over
which cavalry moved or long waggon trains crept. Down along the
swamps that edged the river they could see soldiers building
corduroy, repairing bridges, digging ditches, and, in one spot,
erecting a fort.
"Oh, hell," said Casson, whose regiment, dismounted, had served
muddy apprenticeship along the York River, "if they're going to
begin that kind of thing again I'd rather be at home laying gas
pipes on Broadway!"
"What kind of thing?" demanded Stephen.
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