would go back there.

When he saw the familiar house a thought came to his mind, and he
wondered it had not come sooner. Would he find them as he had left
them, mother, and 'Omi, and Zeb, and Mam, and Thello?

For an instant he almost feared to go on. Ah, there was Mam, waddling
across from house to shed, probably going to call Thello from his
favourite seat in the sunshine on the sheltered side of the building.
The door opens and his mother runs out. She has seen him riding up,
and she cries: "Rodney, my boy!" and throws her arms about his neck,
standing on tiptoe, for he is tall.

"Only one arm left for hugging, Mother. This is the only badge I bring
back from the war," and he pointed to his arm in the sling, adding, as
he notes her alarm, "it's nothing serious. How are you all?"

"All well and happy now you are back, all save poor old Thello, who's
very miserable, but sight of you will make him forget his aches, I'm
sure. Why, Rodney, where did you find Nat? Don't you know me, Nat, or
have they treated you so badly you've forgotten old friends?"

Naomi, now grown to a handsome girl, ran out and it was some minutes
before quiet was restored. Then Rodney asked for Zeb.

"I sent him to Philadelphia. I learned a very dear friend of ours
living there is in sore trouble, and I hope he will succeed in having
her return with him."

"Any one I know?"

"Some one you are much interested in. Your friend, Captain Enderwood,
who had been to Philadelphia to see her, came all the way to
Charlottesville to tell us about her. He also told me how she was the
one who had you released from prison and nursed you through your
sickness while you were unconscious, and made herself sick in
consequence."

"You don't mean--you can't mean--"

"I mean that Elizabeth Danesford is alive. The mistake came from the
report that she couldn't live. Doesn't it seem too good to be true?"
and Mrs. Allison watched Rodney's face as she added: "She is very
poor. Captain Enderwood wished to marry her, he frankly told me so,
but you know it would require more than poverty to weaken Lisbeth's
resolution. The captain had heard her speak of me as her adopted aunt
and he came all the way to Charlottesville to tell me about her. You
see, her uncle and aunt in Philadelphia are dead and she has no kin in
this country save a cousin who is not able to render her much if any
assistance."

"She'll not be poor if we ever get what the 'Chevalier' left to us in