the wish of the State that it should be
removed."

"Well, by ----! after his promise. What did Davis say?"

"That if Kentucky opened the Northern door for invasion, she must not
close the Southern door to entrance for defence."

"And dead right he is," growled the Major with satisfaction.

"Governor Magoffin asked Ohio and Indiana to join in an effort for a
peace Congress," Chad added.

"Well?"

"Both governors refused."

"I tell you, boy, the hour has come."

The hour had come.

"I'm going away this morning, Major."

The Major did not even turn his head.

"I thought this was coming," he said quietly. Chad's face grew even
paler, and he steeled his heart for the revelation.

"I've already spoken to Lieutenant Hunt," the Major went on. "He
expects to be a captain, and he says that, maybe, he can make you a
lieutenant. You can take that boy Brutus as a body servant." He brought
his fist down on the railing of the porch. "God, but I'd give the rest
of my life to be ten years younger than I am now."

"Major, I'm GOING INTO THE UNION ARMY."

The Major's pipe almost dropped from between his lips. Catching the
arms of his chair with both hands, he turned heavily and with dazed
wonder, as though the boy had struck him with his fist from behind,
and, without a word, stared hard into Chad's tortured face. The keen
old eye had not long to look before it saw the truth, and then,
silently, the old man turned back. His hands trembled on the chair, and
he slowly thrust them into his pockets, breathing hard through his
nose. The boy expected an outbreak, but none came. A bee buzzed above
them. A yellow butterfly zigzagged by. Blackbirds chattered in the
firs. The screech of a peacock shrilled across the yard, and a
ploughman's singing wailed across the fields:

Trouble, O Lawd!
Nothin' but trouble in de lan' of Canaan.

The boy knew he had given his old friend a mortal hurt.

"Don't, Major," he pleaded. "You don't know how I have fought against
this. I tried to be on your side. I thought I was. I joined the Rifles.
I found first that I couldn't fight WITH the South, and--then--I--found
that I had to fight FOR the North. It almost kills me when I think of
all you have done."

The Major waved his hand imperiously. He was not the man to hear his
favors recounted, much less refer to them himself. He straightened and
got up from his chair. His manner had grown formal, stately, coldly
courteous.

"I cannot unde