"I only wish I was a soldier with a big, sharp sword like yours--'cause when the blue boys came I'd _stick_ 'em in the stomach." Mrs.Cary was coming down the steps now with a small package of food and in the roadway Uncle Billy stood feeding and watering his master's horse.

In this bitterest of moments, when his own family had to be the ones to hurry him along his way, there had come another and greater danger--peril to those he loved.
"Tell me, dear," he said with his hand warm on his wife's soft shoulder.
"Is it true that Jeems Henry ran away this morning ?" "Yes," she nodded.

"I knew the poor boy meant to leave us sooner or later, so I made no effort to detain him." "You did right," was the answer.

"But which way did he go ?" "Up the river.

To a Union camp on the Chickahominy." "Chickahominy!" exclaimed Cary sharply, and bit his lips.