alive. And so I have given him up,
Doris"--his voice failed him. He had meant to say, "You are all I have."

"Uncle Win--may I tell you--I saw him yesterday in the afternoon. And he
told me he had enlisted----"

"Oh, then, you know!" The tone somehow grew harder.

"Dear Uncle Win, I think he could not help going. He was very brave.
And he was sorry, too. His eyes were full of tears while he was talking.
And he asked me----"

"To intercede for him?"

"No--to stay here with you always. He said I was like a little sister.
And I promised. Uncle Win, if you will keep me I will be your little
girl all my life long. I will never leave you. I love you very dearly.
For since Uncle Leverett went away I have given you both loves."

She stood there in silence many minutes. Oh, how comforting was the
clasp of the soft arms about his neck, how consoling the dear, assuring
voice!

"Will you tell me about it?" he said at length.

She was a wise little thing, though I think her chief wisdom lay in her
desire not to give anyone pain. Some few sentences she left out, others
she softened.

"Oh," she said beseechingly, "you will not be angry with him, Uncle
Winthrop? I think it is very brave and heroic in him. It is like some of
the old soldiers in the Latin stories. I shall study hard now, so I can
read about them all. And I shall pray all the time that the war will
come to an end. We shall be so proud and glad when he returns. And then
you will have two children again."

"Yes--we will hope for the war to end speedily. It ought never to have
begun. What can we do against an enemy that has a hundred arms ready to
destroy us? Little Doris, I am glad to have you."

Winthrop Adams was not a man to talk over his sorrows. He had been
wounded to the quick. He had not dreamed that his son would disregard
his wishes. His fatherly pride was up in arms. But he did not turn his
wounded side to the world. He quietly admitted that his son had gone to
Annapolis, and received the congratulations of friends who sincerely
believed it was time to strike.

Salem was busy at her wharves, where peaceable merchantmen were being
transformed into war vessels. Charlestown was all astir, and sailors
donned the uniform proudly. New York and Baltimore joined in the general
activity. The _Constellation_ was fitting out at Norfolk. The
_Chesapeake_, the _United States_, and the _President_ were to be made
famous on history's page. Privateers without numb