et back again," replied Marcy. "He
thinks the South is going to have a navy that will beat anything the
world ever saw. Yes, Rodney is a rebel to the backbone," he added in
response to an inquiry from his mother. "Says the Northern folks will be
whipped before they can take their coats off; but for all that he showed
considerable feeling when he came to say good-by. He is under a promise
to enlist under the Stars and Bars within twenty-four hours after he
reaches home, and I know he will do it, if he can get to a recruiting
office. But to return to business. I am sure we had better keep right
along as we have been going, instead of pulling up stakes and moving to
some new place to meet dangers and difficulties of which we know
nothing. We've got to eat, and we must have something to wear; and how
are we to get things if we have no crops? Have you any money?"

Mrs. Gray started perceptibly at this abrupt question, and before
replying arose to her feet and opened, in quick succession, all the
doors leading out of the dining-room.

"Aha!" said Marcy, who thought he knew the meaning of this pantomime.
"You remind me of old Uncle Toby. _He_ had money which he lost because
he hid it in the ground instead of putting it where it would have been
safe."

"That is what I have done with ours," said his mother, in a scarcely
audible whisper. "That is to say, I have concealed it."

"How much?"

"Nearly thirty thousand dollars, and it is all in gold."

"W-h-e-w!" whistled Marcy. "What put it into your head?"

"I took warning; that is all. The Southern people have often threatened
to secede if a Republican President was elected, and I was sure they
meant it; so when the election returns came in and this excitement
began, I made several quiet business trips to Newbern, Wilmington,
Norfolk, and Richmond."

"Why, you never said a word about it in your letters."

"I know it. I did not think it necessary to trouble you with it. I drew
a little money each time, brought it home in safety, and I trust without
exciting suspicion, though on that point, of course, I cannot be sure,
and hid it in the cellar at dead of night, after I had taken the
greatest pains to assure myself that every one in the house was soundly
asleep."

"How did you cover up the place where you had been digging?"

"I didn't do any digging," his mother answered, with a smile. "I took a
stone out of the wall as heavy as I could lift, and cemented it in place
aga