ent clattering to the floor. "Fo' de
land's sake!" she cried, "if it isn't Massa Calhoun. De Lawd bress yo',
chile! De Lawd bress you!" And she seized him and fairly dragged him into
the house.

"Hush, Chloe, not so loud. Don't tell father I am here yet. And, Chloe,
don't whisper I am here to a soul. If the Yankees found out I was here,
they might hang me."

"Oh, Lawd! Oh, Lawd! hang youn' Massa?" she cried. "Ole Chloe tell no
one."

"That's right, Aunt Chloe. Now bake those biscuits I see you are making,
in a hurry. And make my favorite pie. I want to eat one more meal of your
cooking. No one can cook like Aunt Chloe."

"Yo' shell hev a meal fit fo' de king!" cried the old negress, her face
all aglow.

"You must hurry, Chloe, for I can't stay long. Now I will go and surprise
father." And surprise him he did. The old Judge could hardly believe the
seeming country boy was his son.

"Where in the world did you come from?" he asked.

"From Corinth," answered Calhoun. "I am now back to recruit for Morgan."

"So you have joined Morgan, have you?"

"Yes. Now that Governor Johnson is killed, I know of no service I would
like as well as to ride with Morgan."

"You could have come home, my son."

"Father! what do you mean? Come home while the South is bleeding at every
pore? Come home like a craven while the contest is yet undecided?"

"I am wrong, my son; but it is so hard for you, my only child, to be in
the army. Oh! that dreadful battle of Shiloh! The agony, the sleepless
nights it has caused me! Thank God you are yet safe."

"Yes, father, and I trust that the hand of a kind Providence will still
protect me. But here is a letter from Morgan."

The Judge adjusted his spectacles, and read the letter with much interest.
"My son," he said, after he had finished it, "it is well you were not
captured with such letters on your person. It might have cost you your
life. Even now I tremble for your safety. Does any one know you are in
Danville?"

"Only Aunt Chloe, and she is as true as steel."

"Yet there is danger. I know the house is under the closest surveillance.
The Federal authorities know I am an ardent friend of the South, and they
watch me continually. Morgan says in his letter that he hopes it will not
be long before he will be in Kentucky."

"And mark my word," cried Calhoun, "it will not be! Before many weeks the
name of Morgan will be on every tongue. He will be the scourge of the
Yankee army. But, f