noon
`` We know that the Southern army has been here , but we do n't know where it has gone . '' `` At any rate , '' said Pennington , `` we 're on the trail , and we 're bound to find it sooner or later . I learned from the hunters in Nebraska that when you strike the trail of a buffalo herd , all you had to do was to keep on and you 'd strike the herd itself . '' It was not yet noon and McClellan 's army began to go into camp at Frederick . Dick and Pennington got a chance to stroll about a little , and they picked up much gossip . Young women , with strong Southern proclivities , looked with frowning eyes upon their blue uniforms , but the frank and pleasant smiles of the two lads disarmed them . Older women of the same proclivities did not melt so easily , but continued to regard them with a hard and burning gaze .