I'm glad the doctor
ordered me west for my health."
"He didn't order you west for your health," said Pennington. "He ordered
you west to get killed for your country."
"Well, at any rate, I'm here, and as I said, this looks like a land worth
saving."
"It's still finer when you get eastward into the Bluegrass," said Dick,
"but it isn't showing at its best. I never before saw the ground looking
so burnt and parched. They say it's the dryest summer known since the
country was settled eighty or ninety years ago."
Dick hoped that their line of march would take them near Pendleton,
and as it soon dropped southward he saw that his hope had come true.
They would pass within twenty miles of his mother's home, and at Dick's
urgent and repeated request, Colonel Winchester strained a point and
allowed him to go. He was permitted to select a horse of unusual power
and speed, and he departed just before sundown.
"Remember that you're to rejoin us to-morrow," said Colonel Winchester.
"Beware of guerillas. I hope you'll find your mother well."
"I feel sure of it, and I shall tell her how very kind and helpful you've
been to me, sir.
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