They chased me when I came before--and now they're watching." He paused to sip at his draught of water, glancing toward the carriage road.

"Big fight down the river.
Listen! Can you hear the guns ?" "Yes, plain," she answered, tilting her tiny head.

"An' las' night, when I went to bed, I could hear 'em--oh! ever so loud: Boom! Boom! Boom-boom! So I knelt up an' asked the Lord not to let any of 'em hit you." Two arms, in their tattered gray, slipped round the child.

He kissed her, in that strange, fierce passion of a man who has lost his mate, and his grief-torn love is magnified in the mite who reflects her image and her memory.
"Did you, honey ?" he asked, with a trembling lip.

"Well, I reckon that saved your daddy, for not one shell touched him--no, not one!" He kissed her again, and laughed.