He could not rise easily, but he stretched out a welcoming
hand.
"Ah! Kenton," he said, "you're a pleasant sight to tired eyes like mine.
You bring back the glorious old days in the valley. So it's a message
from the commander-in-chief?"
"Yes, sir. Here it is."
Ewell read it rapidly by the firelight and smiled.
"He tells us we're nearest to the enemy," he said, "and to hold fast,
if we're attacked. You're to remain with us and report what happens,
but doubtless you knew all this."
"Yes, I had to commit it to memory before I started."
"Then stay here with me. I may want to report to General Lee at any
time. The enemy is in our front only three or four miles away. He knows
we're here and it was a villainous surprise to him to find us in his way.
They say this man Grant is a pounder. So is Lee, when the time comes to
pound, but he's that and far more. I tell you, young man, that General
Lee has had to trim a lot of Northern generals. McClellan and Pope and
Burnside and Hooker and Meade have been going to school to him, and now
Grant is qualifying for his class."
"But Grant is a great general. So our men in the West themselves say."
"He may be, but Lee is greater, greatest. And, Harry, you and I, who
knew him and loved him, wish that another who alone was fit to ride by
his side was here with him.
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