chance in coming by here to see you,
but I couldn't go on without a few minutes. Inside now, mother, your
hands are growing cold."

They went in at the door, and closed it behind them. But there was
another faithful soul on guard that night. In the dusky hail loomed a
gigantic black figure in a blue checked dress, blue turban on head.

"Marse Dick?" she said.

"Juliana!" he exclaimed. "How did you know that I was here?"

"Ain't I done heard Miss Em'ly cry out, me always sleepin' so light, an'
I hears her run down the hail. An' then I dresses an' comes an' sees you
two through the crack o' the do', an' then I waits till you come in."

Dick gave her a most affectionate greeting, knowing that she was as true
as steel. She rejoiced in her flowery name, as many other colored women
rejoiced in theirs, but her heart inhabited exactly the right spot in
her huge anatomy. She drew mother and son into the sitting-room, where
low coals still burned on the hearth. Then she went up to Mrs. Mason's
bedroom and put out the light, after which she came back to the
sitting-room, and, standing by a window in silence, watched over the two
over whom she had watched so long.

"Why is it that you can stay such a little while?" asked Mrs. Mason.

"Mother," replied Dick in a low tone, "General Thomas, who won the
battle at Mill Spring, has trusted me. I bear a dispatch of great
importance. It is to go to General Buell, and it has to do with the
gathering of the Union troops in the western and southern parts of our
state, and in Tennessee. I must get through with it, and in war, mother,
time counts almost as much as battles. I can stop only a few minutes
even for you."

"I suppose it is so. But oh, Dicky, won't this terrible war be over
soon?"

"I don't think so, mother. It's scarcely begun yet."

Mrs. Mason said nothing, but stared into the coals. The great negress,
Juliana, standing at the window, did not move.

"I suppose you are right, Dick," she said at last with a sigh, "but it
is awful that our people should be arrayed so against one another. There
is your cousin, Harry Kenton, a good boy, too, on the other side."

"Yes, mother, I caught a glimpse of him at Bull Run. We came almost face
to face in the smoke. But it was only for an instant. Then the smoke
rushed in between. I don't think anything serious has happened to him."

Mrs. Mason shuddered.

"I should mourn him next to you," she said, "and my brother-in-law,
Colone