"I don't look on it as a picnic altogether," he said. "The Yankees will
fight very hard, but we live on the land almost wholly, and the grass
keeps on growing, whether there's war or not. Besides, we're an outdoor
people, good horsemen, hunters, and marksmen. These things ought to
help us."

"They will and we'll help ourselves most," said Langdon gaily. "I'm
going to be either a general or a great politician, Harry. If it's a
long war, I'll come out a general; if it's a short one, I mean to enter
public life afterward and be a great orator. Did you ever hear me speak,
Harry?"

"No, thank Heaven," replied Harry fervently. "Don't you think that
South Carolina has enough orators now? What on earth do all your people
find to talk about?"

Langdon laughed with the utmost good nature.

"We fire the human heart," he replied. "'Words, words, empty words,' it
is not so. Words in themselves are often deeds, because the deeds start
from them or are caused by them. The world has been run with words.
All great actions result from them. Now, if we should have a big war,
it would be said long afterward that it was caused by words, words
spoken at Charleston and Boston, though, of course, the things they say
at Boston are wrong, while those said at Charleston are right."

Harry laughed in his turn.

"It's quite certain," he said, "that you'll have no lack of words
yourself. I imagine that the sign over your future office will read,