Drummer Boy at Bull Run Read Online Free

Virginia.”
    Jeff stared at the hills that rose in front of them but said nothing. Glancing at Tom, he noted that his brother’s face was gloomy.
    His mother said, probably as cheerfully as she could, “Well, it’s hard to leave Kentucky—but Virginia’s our home now.”
    “So it is, Irene.” His father spoke to the team, and they moved forward.
    Soon they passed down into the valley and on to the green foothills of Virginia.

3
I Won’t Let You Go Alone!
    L eah, there’s no sense moping around like a sick kitten,” Mrs. Carter said sharply. She was hanging out the washing, and the wind puffed the dresses and shirts so that they danced in the stiff breeze. “Jeff is gone, and you might as well get used to it.”
    Leah draped a pair of Royal’s long underwear over the line before she said, “Oh, Ma, there’s nothing to do now that he’s gone!”
    “There’s plenty of work to do, young lady—” Leah’s mother broke off as Mr. Carter emerged from the house. “Well, now you have something to do. You can go to town with your father. Be sure you get everything I put on the grocery list.” She frowned, adding, “Don’t expect him to help. He’s so fired up over this war he can’t remember to tie his shoes!”
    “Come along, daughter. We’ve got to be on our way.”
    “All right, Pa.” Leah hurried to the barn and helped her father hitch the team to the buggy. “Let me drive,” she begged, and when he agreed, she leaped into the seat. “Hold on now,” she commanded, then sent the horses out of the yard at a sprightly pace.
    Leah loved horses, and her father had taught her to drive when she was barely able to hold the lines.
    Now as they sped along, he gave her a fond glance, thinking,
She’s a fine girl—none better anywhere!
Headmired her smooth, rosy cheeks and her blonde hair, escaping the edges of her bonnet.
Thirteen years old—she’ll be a woman soon
.
    Aloud he said, “You miss Jeff pretty bad, don’t you, Pet?”
    Leah kept her eyes on the shiny coats of the horses. “Oh, I guess so …”
    Mr. Carter knew his daughter very well. She was not a great talker about how she felt—but he knew that she had been lonely since the boy had gone.
    “Well,” he said finally, “I miss Jeff. I miss them all. Didn’t know how much I thought of the Majors family until they were gone.”
    Eagerly Leah turned to face him, her green eyes bright with hope. “Do you think they’ll come back here to live—when the war’s over, I mean?”
    “That might be a long time, I’m afraid.”
    “But everybody says the Rebels will be whipped in six months!”
    “Everybody is probably wrong, Pet.” A sorrowful light came to her father’s faded blue eyes. His thin shoulders were sharply outlined under his worn blue-and-white checked shirt. “The Confederates are fighting for their homes. They’re not likely to give up easily.”
    The iron-shod hooves of the team struck rhythmically on the dirt road, sending up clouds of fine dust behind the buggy.
    Leah said nothing for five minutes, then she whispered, “Pa … I’m afraid something will happen to Royal … and to Jeff … and his family.”
    “I’m afraid too,” her father said simply. “But we’ll have to pray that they will be safe.”
    Mr. Carter had always been able to talk to Leah, even more than he had with Royal. The lovebetween the two of them ran deep, and as the buggy rolled down the dusty road, he tried to calm her fears.
    As they approached the town, he said with surprise, “Why, look at that, Pet!”
    Leah glanced down the road. “Why, Pa, it looks like everybody in the county is in town! And it’s not even a Saturday!”
    The streets of Pineville were so packed with wagons and horses that Leah had to drive all the way to the blacksmith shop on the far end of the main street.
    Clyde Potter, the blacksmith, came out to greet them.
    Her father asked, “What in the world is going on, Clyde?”
    “Why, it’s the army, come to