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Updated: May 25, 2025
Dusk was falling, and already Raincrow and Crittenden were jogging along toward her at that hour the last trip for either for many a day the last for either in life, maybe for Raincrow, too, like his master, was going to war while Bob, at home, forbidden by his young captain to follow him to Chickamauga, trailed after Crittenden about the place with the appealing look of a dog enraged now and then by the taunts of the sharp-tongued Molly, who had the little confidence in the courage of her fellows that marks her race.
There was his horse Raincrow and his buggy waiting for him when he stepped from the platform; and, as he went forward with his fishing tackle, a livery-stable boy sprang out of the buggy and went to the horse's head. "Bob lef' yo' hoss in town las' night, Mistuh Crittenden," he said. "Miss Rachel said yestiddy she jes knowed you was comin' home this mornin'."
There was a big crowd in the lovely woodland over which hung the haze, and the music of horn and drum came forth to Crittenden's ears even that far away, and Raincrow raised head and tail and quickened his pace proudly. For a week he had drilled at Chickamauga.
The Colonel had cast an envious eye on Raincrow at Tampa, and, straightway, he had taken the liberty of getting the Sergeant to take the horse to the Colonel's tent with the request that he use him throughout the campaign.
At the same moment hoofs beat the dirt-road behind him familiar hoof-beats and he turned to see Basil and Raincrow for Crittenden's Colonel was sick with fever and Basil had Raincrow now on their way with a message to Chaffee at Caney. Crittenden saluted gravely, as did Basil, though the boy turned in his saddle, and with an affectionate smile waved back at him. Crittenden's lips moved.
Crittenden spoke one quiet word to his own horse, and Judith saw the leaders of his wrist begin to stand out as Raincrow settled into the long reach that had sent his sire a winner under many a string. "Well, I know what he meant that boy never will. And that is as a man should be. The hope of the race isn't in this buggy it has gone on before with Phyllis and Basil."
And among the searchers was the faithful Bob, looking for his Old Captain, Crittenden, his honest heart nigh to bursting, for already he had found Raincrow torn with a shell and he had borne a body back to the horror-haunted little hospital under the creek bank at the Bloody Ford a body from which the head hung over his shoulder limp, with a bullet-hole through the neck the body of his Young Captain, Basil.
So Raincrow was aboard the ship, and the old Colonel, coming down to look at the horse one day, found Crittenden feeding him, and thanked him and asked him how he was getting along; and, while there was a smile about his humorous mouth, there was a kindly look in his blue eyes that pleased Crittenden mightily.
Far behind was the sound of another horse's hoofs, and Crittenden, glancing back, saw his political enemy Wharton a girl by his side, and coming at full speed. At once he instinctively gave half the road, and Raincrow, knowing what that meant, shot out his feet and Crittenden tightened the reins, not to check, but to steady him.
"Shall I turn in?" he asked. "Go on," said Judith. There was a long, low hill before them, and up that Crittenden let Raincrow have his full speed for the first time. The panting nostrils of the other horse fell behind out of sight out of hearing. "And if he doesn't get back from the war, she will mourn for him sincerely for a year or two and then " "Marry someone else." "Why not?"
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