fight, sure; and the Union boys were not
only as brave as boys ever get to be, but their fists were as hard as so
many bricks. Cole knew that by experience. And if he could not tell her
that the old flag had been hauled down, he need not take the trouble to
call at her house. The young lady did not say so, but Cole knew well
enough that that was what she meant.

"The commandant is one traitor, but who are the others?" she asked,
after a moment's pause. "You said in effect that the school is full of
them. The colonel does not often honor us girls with his visits, but the
young gentlemen do sometimes, and we should like to know who the
traitors are, so that we can be at home or not, as circumstances seem to
require. Give us their names, please."

Rodney's companions would have thought twice before complying with this
request, but Rodney himself did not see anything surprising in it. The
girls were ardent secessionists, and of course they did not care to
associate with those who stood up for the Yankees and for the flag they
worshiped. The cousin whom he had always loved as a brother was beneath
contempt now, for he was a traitor to the South, and undeserving of the
slightest show of respect from any one who had the least respect for
himself.

"Well, there's that lovely relative of mine for one," said Rodney
promptly.

The girls could hardly believe that they had heard aright. They looked
at each other in silence for a moment, and then they looked at Rodney.

"I didn't think that Marcy Gray was such a coward," said one, at
length.

"Oh, you are 'way off the track!" exclaimed Dick Graham, who, although
he afterward went into the Confederate Army and became a partisan
ranger, never forgot the warm friendship he cherished for Marcy Gray.
"That fellow is nobody's coward, and you wouldn't think so if you could
have seen him when--"

"Look here, Dick," interrupted Rodney, who was afraid that Marcy's
friend was about to say something compromising. "It is very easy for a
fellow to say that he is for the Union when he is so far away from the
North that he can not, by any possible chance, be called upon to fight
for the opinions he pretends to hold, but has Marcy the courage to show
by his acts that he is sincere in what he says?"

"Well, yes; I think he has," answered Dick. "When you fellows had that
fight over the flag--"

"That isn't what I mean," exclaimed Rodney, impatiently.

"What was it, Mr. Graham?" asked one o