r I've long
been without news."

"Lackaday," said the wife, "'tis but a dull story. All the good-men
away, and none but lads and grandfathers to till the fields and care for
the women. The Cowboys and the Skinners[1] scour the country like
wolves. What the one leaves the other takes. We've suffered with our
neighbors, but bear it lightly, dear heart, for thought of you all in
the thick of the trouble."

"No tongue can speak what the poor fellows endure," said the soldier.
"Uniforms in rags, without blankets to keep 'em warm at night, scarcely
one good meal a day, shoeless feet that drip blood a-walking post in the
snow. His Excellency had me to dinner the night before I left camp. One
tough smoked goose for eight, but 'twas washed down with the General's
choice Madeira. Tears came to his brave patient eyes as he talked. 'Oh,
for some brave heroic deed,' he said, 'some dashing stroke, something to
shoot a thrill of cheer through these downcast spirits! 'Twould be
better, methinks, than the coming of a great supply train.' Even his
iron soul sometimes falters. And now, Jack, about the _Tartar_. Does she
trouble the country overmuch? I made a long beat to 'scape the
look-out."

The boy clinched his teeth. "'Tis a brazen jackanapes, that Captain
Askew. His boat parties do as much mischief as the Cowboys. There's
scarcely a ham left in the place from the Christmas killing. Only two
days since I met him swaggering on the beach, and he threatened to
impress me on the _Tartar_ for a powder-monkey. There was a scowl on his
red face. 'Look ye, you rebel spawn, they say your father calls himself
a Colonel under Mr. Washington. Some day I shall come and take ye aboard
to serve his Majesty, and introduce ye to his Majesty's faithful
servant, the cat.'" The boy stopped, and then started as if something
burned him. "Oh, daddy, think of what General Washington said! If we
could only--"

The same thought leaped like an electric spark between them--brave
father and gallant boy. No need of words. Eye flashed it to eye. To
capture and destroy the _Tartar_--a small matter indeed in the sum of
the struggle, but might it not be like a spark of flame in dead dry wood
to kindle fire and hope?

Colonel Lockett lay quietly at home during a whole week. Scarcely a soul
seemed to know of his coming. But Jack took long rides, to his mother's
wonderment, by night and by day through the country. The secret talks
between Jack and his father, the