2 AN IDLER ON MISSION ABY RIDGE. 



of coffee. In another direction was a spot 

 where the Rebels once " had a regular pic- 

 nic," killing some extraordinary number of 

 Yankees in some incredibly brief time. I 

 interrupted the conversation, and at the 

 same time made myself known as a stran- 

 ger and a Northerner, by inquiring after 

 the whereabouts of Orchard Knob, General 

 Grant's headquarters ; and the same man, 

 who seemed to be the s]3okesman of the 

 party, after pointing out the place, a savin- 

 sprinkled knoll between us and the city, 

 kindly invited me to go with him and his 

 comrades up to the tower, — on the site of 

 General Bragg's headquarters, — where he 

 would show me the whole battlefield and 

 tell me about the fight. 



We left the car together for that purpose, 

 and walked up the slope to the foot of the 

 observatory, — an open structure of iron, 

 erected by the national government; but 

 just then my ear caught somewhere beyond 

 us the song of a Bachman's finch, — a song 

 I had heard a year before in the pine woods 

 of Florida, and, in my ignorance, was un- 

 prepared for here. I must see the bird and 

 make sure of its identity. It led me a little 



