Dick, despite those warning guns behind him, would have remained a while in Bull Run, luxuriating in the stream, but the crowd of his comrades was pressing hard upon him, and he only had time to thrust his face into the water and to pour it over his neck, arms, and shoulders.  But he was refreshed greatly.  Some of the heat went out of his body, and his eyes and head ached less.

The retreat continued across the rolling hills.  Dick saw everywhere arms and supplies thrown away by the fringe of a beaten army, the men in the rear who saw and who spread the reports of panic and terror.  But the regiments were forming again into a cohesive force, and behind them the regulars and cavalry in firm array still challenged pursuit.  Heavy firing was heard again under the horizon and word came that the Southern cavalry had captured guns and wagons, but the main division maintained its slow retreat toward Washington.

Now the cool shadows were coming.  The sun, which had shown as red as blood over the field that day, was sinking behind the hills.  Its fiery rays ceased to burn the faces of the men.  A soft healing breeze stirred the leaves and grass.  The river of Bull Run and the field of Manassas were gone from sight, and the echo of the last cannon shot died solemnly on the Southern horizon.  An hour later the brigade stopped in the wood, and the exhausted men threw themselves upon the ground.  They were so tired that their bodies were in pain as if pricked with needles.  The chagrin and disgrace of defeat were forgotten for the time in the overpowering desire for rest.

Dick had enlisted as a common soldier.  There was no burden of maintaining order upon him, and he threw himself upon the ground by the side of his new friend, Sergeant Whitley.  His breath came at first in gasps, but presently he felt better and sat up.

It was now full night, thrice blessed to them all, with the heat and dust gone and no enemy near.  The young recruits had recovered their courage.  The terrible scenes of the battle were hid from their eyes, and the cannon no longer menaced on the horizon.  The sweet, soothing wind blew gently over the hills among which they lay, and the leaves rustled peacefully.

Fires were lighted, wagons with supplies arrived, and the men began to cook food, while the surgeons moved here and there, binding up the wounds of the hurt.  The pleasant odors of coffee and frying meat arose.  Sergeant Whitley stood up and by the moonlight and the fires scanned the country about them with discerning eye.  Dick looked at him with renewed interest.  He was a man of middle years, but with all the strength and elasticity of youth.  Despite his thick coat of tan he was naturally fair, and Dick noticed that his hands were the largest that he had ever seen on any human being.  They seemed to the boy to have in them the power to strangle a bear.  But the man was singularly mild and gentle in his manner.