rowful, Mr. Arthur: I didn't mean to distress you with my prating.
You tell me, you think you may travel as far as Georgie."

"Even so far, good dame, if some accident should not shorten my career.
These are doubtful times, and my path is as uncertain as the chances of
war. It may be long before I return.

"I grieve night and day, and my heart bleeds for Miss Mildred, for she
is so good, so constant, so brave, too, for a woman," said the widow
with unaffected emotion. "Well-a-day! what woes these wars have brought
upon us! You told her your plans, Mr. Arthur?"

"Our interview was short and painful," replied Butler. "I scarcely know
what I said to her. But, one thing I entreat of you: my letters will be
directed to your charge; you will contrive to have them promptly and
secretly delivered: oblige me still in that, good mother. Henry will
often visit you."

"And a brave and considerate young man he is, major; I'll be surety for
his making of an honorable and a real gentleman. Do you join the army in
Carolina?"

"Perhaps not. My route lies into the mountains, our troops struggle for
a footing in the low country."

"If I may make bold, Major Butler, to drop a word of advice into your
ear, which, seeing that I'm an older man than you," interrupted the
sergeant, in an admonitory whisper, "I think I have got good right to
do, why I would just say that there may be no great disconvenience in
talking before friends; but sometimes silence brings more profit than
words. So, I vote that we leave off telling the course of our march till
such time as it is done, and all is safe. There will be briers enough in
our way, without taking the trouble to sow them by the road-side. The
man that stands a little aside from that window, out on the porch,
throws his shadow across the sill oftener than is honest, according to
my reckoning. You said, ma'am," continued Horse Shoe, addressing the
widow, "that the fellow in the porch yon is Mr. Tyrrel's man."

"He walks later than usual to-night," replied Mrs. Dimock, "for though
he can't be called a man of regular hours, yet, unless he can find an
idler to keep him company, he is accustomed to be in his bed before
this."

"He is after no good, depend upon that," said Horse Shoe. "I have twice
seen the light upon his face behind the shutter: so, true man or spy,
it's my admonishment not to speak above the purring of a cat."

"You are right, Galbraith," said Butler. "We have many reasons to