Maybe none of your letters will reach me, but at least start them.

I shall start mine, too." "Of course, mother," said Dick, "and now it's time for me to ride hard." "Why, you have been here only a half hour!" "Nearer an hour, mother, and on this journey of mine time means a lot.

I must say good-bye now to you and Juliana." The two women followed him down the lawn to the point where his horse was hitched between the two big pines.

Mrs.Mason patted the horse's great head and murmured to him to carry her son well.
"Did you ever see a finer horse, mother ?" said Dick proudly.

"He's the very pick of the army." He threw his arms around her neck, kissed her more than once, sprang into the saddle and rode away in the darkness.
The two women, the black and the white, sisters in grief, and yet happy that he had come, went slowly back into the house to wait, while the boy, a man's soul in him, strode on to war.
Dick was far from Pendleton when the dawn broke, and now he had full need of caution.