A great battle had begun. Cannon were booming, some far away, some
near at hand. Soldiers were marching through the fields. Men on
horseback were riding in haste toward the front.
"Whiz!" A cannon ball struck the ground quite near to a company of
soldiers. But they marched straight onward. The drums were beating,
the fifes were playing.
"Whiz!" Another cannon ball flew through the air and struck a tree
near by. A brave general was riding across the field. One ball after
another came whizzing near him.
"General, you are in danger here," said an officer who was riding with
him. "You had better fall back to a place of safety."
[Illustration]
But the general rode on.
Suddenly he stopped at the foot of a tree. "Halt!" he cried to the men
who were with him. He leaped from his horse. He stooped and picked up
a bird's nest that had fallen upon the ground. In the nest were some
tiny, half-fledged birds. Their mouths were open for the food they
were expecting their mother to give them.
"I cannot think of leaving these little things here to be trampled
upon," said the general.
He lifted the nest gently and put it in a safe place in the forks of
the tree.
"Whiz!" Another cannon ball.
He leaped into the saddle, and away he dashed with his officers close
behind him.
"Whiz! whiz! whiz!"
He had done one good deed. He would do many more before the war was
over. "Boom! boom! boom!"
The cannon were roaring, the balls were flying, the battle was raging.
But amid all the turmoil and danger, the little birds chirped happily
in the safe shelter where the great general, Robert E. Lee, had placed
them. "He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and
small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all."