Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury Page A

thought, what a lovely name and what a shame to see it only on battle records."
    "Shiloh, then. Fort Sumter?"
    "I saw the first puffs of powder smoke." A dreaming voice. "So many things come back, oh, so many things. T remember songs.'AU's quiet along the Potomac tonight, where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming; their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon, or the light of the watchfire, are gleaming. Remember, remember...'AU quiet along the Potomac tonight; no sound save the rush of the river; while soft falls the dew on the face of the dead--the picket's off duty forever!'... After the surrender, Mr. Lincoln, on the White House balcony asked the band to play,'Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.'... And then there was the Boston lady who one night wrote a song will last a thousand years:'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. Late nights I feel my mouth move singing back in another time. 'Ye Cavaliers of Dixie! Who guard the Southern shores ...''When the boys come home in triumph, brother, with the laurels they shall gain...' So many songs, sung on both sides, blowing north, blowing south on the night winds. 'We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more ...''Tenting tonight, tenting tonight, tenting on the old camp ground.''Hurrah, hurrah, we bring the Jubilee, hurrah, hurrah, the flag that makes us free ...
    The old man's voice faded.
    The boys sat for a long while without moving. Then Charlie turned and looked at Douglas and said, "Well, is he or isn't he?" Douglas breathed twice and said, "He sure is."
    The colonel opened his eyes.
    "I sure am what?" he asked.
    "A Time Machine," murmured Douglas. "A Time Machine."
    The colonel looked at the boys for a full five seconds. Now it was his voice that was full of awe.
    "Is that what you boys call me?" "Yes, sir, Colonel."
    "Yes, sir."
    The colonel sat slowly back in his chair and looked at the boys and looked at his hands and then looked at the blank wall beyond them steadily.
    Charlie arose. "Well, I guess we better go. So long and thanks, Colonel."
    "What? Oh, so long, boys."
    Douglas and John and Charlie went on tiptoe out the door.
    Colonel Freeleigh, though they crossed his line of vision, did not see them go.
    In the street, the boys were startled when someone shouted from a first-floor window above, "Hey!"
    They looked up.
    "Yes, sir, Colonel?"
    The colonel leaned out, waving one arm.
    "I thought about what you said, boys!"
    "Yes, sir?"
    "And-you're right! Why didn't I think of it before! A Time Machine, by God, a Time Machine!"
    "Yes, sir."
    "So long, boys. Come aboard any time!"
    At the end of the street they turned again and the colonel was still waving. They waved back, feeling warm and good, then went on.
    "Chug-a-chug," said John. "I can travel twelve years into the past. Wham-chug-ding!"
    "Yeah," said Charlie, looking back at that quiet house, "but you can't go a hundred years."
    "No," mused John, "I can't go a hundred years. That's really traveling. That's really some machine."
    They walked for a full minute in silence, looking at their feet. They came to a fence.
    "Last one over this fence," said Douglas, "is a girl."
    All the way home they called Douglas "Dora."
    Long after midnight Tom woke to find Douglas scribbling rapidly in the nickel tablet, by flashlight.
    "Doug, what's up?"
    "Up? Everything's up! I'm counting my blessings, Tom! Look here; the Happiness Machine didn't work out, did it?. But, who cares! I got the whole year lined up, anyway. Need r to run anywhere on the main streets, I got the Green Town Trolley to look around and spy on the world from. Need to run anywhere off the main streets, I knock on Miss Fern and I Miss Roberta's door and they charge up the batteries on their electric runabout and we go sailing down the sidewalks. Need to run down alleys and over fences, to see that part of Green Town you only see around back and