Such hours as followed are very rare in this life; and they are nearly always bought with a great price--paid for in advance with sorrow and anxiety, or earned by such faithful watching and patient waiting as touches the very citadel of life.
The men were hungry; they had eaten nothing all day.

How delicious was their meal! How happy and merry it made the Senora, and Antonia, and Isabel, to see them empty dish after dish; to see their unaffected enjoyment of the warm room, and bright fire, of their after-dinner coffee and tobacco.

There was only one drawback to the joy of the reunion--the absence of Jack.
"His disappointment will be greater than ours," said Jack's father.

"To be present at the freeing of his native city, and to bring his first laurels to his mother, was the brightest dream Jack had.

But Jack is a fine rider, and is not a very fine marksman; so it was decided to send him with Houston to the Convention.