son's
trouble or its cure, she went home in a measure comforted with the
assurance of the sympathy of one stronger than she. She had found out
that her neighbor, powerful and rich as she seemed to her to be, had
her own troubles and sorrows; she heard from her of the danger of war
breaking out at any time, and her husband would enlist among the first.

Little Darby did not say much when his mother told of her visit; but his
usually downcast eyes had a new light in them, and he began to visit the
Cross-roads oftener.

At last one day the news that came to the Cross-roads was that there
was to be war. It had been in the air for some time, but now it was
undoubted. It came in the presence of Mr. Douwill himself, who had
come the night before and was commissioned by the Governor to raise
a company. There were a number of people there--quite a crowd for
the little Cross-roads--for the stir had been growing day by day, and
excitement and anxiety were on the increase. The papers had been full of
secession, firing on flags, raising troops, and everything; but that
was far off. When Mr. Douwill appeared in person it came nearer,
though still few, if any, quite took it in that it could be actual and
immediate. Among those at the Cross-roads that day were the Millses,
father and sons, who looked a little critically at the speaker as one
who had always been on the other side. Little Darby was also there,
silent as usual, but with a light burning in his blue eyes.

That evening, when Little Darby reached home, which he did somewhat
earlier than usual, he announced to his mother that he had enlisted as
a soldier. The old woman was standing before her big fireplace when he
told her, and she leaned against it quite still for a moment; then she
sat down, stumbling a little on the rough hearth as she made her way to
her little broken chair. Darby got up and found her a better one, which
she took without a word.

Whatever entered into her soul in the little cabin that night, when Mrs.
Stanley went among her neighbors she was a soldier's mother. She even
went over to Cove Mills's on some pretext connected with Darby's going.
Vashti was not at home, but Mrs. Mills was, and she felt a sudden loss,
as if somehow the Millses had fallen below the Stanleys. She talked
of it for several days; she could not make out entirely what it was.
Vashti's black eyes flashed.

The next day Darby went to the Cross-roads to drill; there was, besides
the