“There is no void in which any creature can be lost, Judy; for the Creator is everywhere, and He is our Father as well, and none of His children can stray out of His presence. It must be dreadful to have any beloved one disappear mysteriously, but it is certain that the Lord knows where he or she is, and will take care of His child, living or dead!” “I believe that, ma’am,” said Judy, trying to rally her spirits. She returned to the study of her book; but her thoughts were too distracted for concentration, and her eyes wandered from the page to the open window. The great gates of the fort were directly in front of the colonel’s quarters and about a hundred yards distant. Presently Judy, looking out toward them, dropped her book, started up and exclaimed: “Why! What!” And then she stopped and gazed through the window. “What is it, my child?” inquired the lady. “A strange officer, ma’am, and several strange soldiers coming in at the gate.” Mrs. Moseley laid down her work and came and joined Judy at the window. A small troop of horsemen, about ten men in all, with an officer at their head, marched through the gate, wheeled to the right, and rode up to the adjutant’s quarters, where they all dismounted. The officer, attended by an orderly, went into the office. The men remained outside, standing by their horses. “What does it mean, ma’am, do you think?” inquired Judy. “I don’t know. It may be some small reinforcement on their way to some other fort. We shall hear when the colonel comes in.” As the lady spoke the orderly came out of the adjutant’s office and spoke to the dismounted men, who immediately dispersed, leading their horses away. The two women stood a few minutes longer at the window, and then, as there was nothing more to be learned by looking out, each returned to her employment. Even after that, Judy continued to glance from her lesson in syntax, through the open window that commanded the great gates and a broad sweep of the fort grounds; but nothing occurred to reward her vigilance or satisfy her curiosity. At length she grew tired of watching, and gave her undivided attention to her lesson. Two hours passed, and the colonel might have been seen coming from the adjutant’s office to his own quarters, with a brisk step and a radiant face, with full twenty years taken off his fifty. “Good news, Dolly, my dear!” he said, bursting into the sitting-room. “Good news! Dispatches from Washington. Call all the children together to hear the good news.” “Go, Judy, dear, and bring them,” exclaimed Mrs. Moseley in eager anticipation. Judy flew to do her bidding, and soon the room was filled with the progeny of the military patriarch. “Where’s Jim?” demanded the colonel, looking around. “Here I am, father,” said the eldest son, entering the room at that moment. “And Betty?” “Here, father, behind you. So close to you that you can’t see me!” “And Baby Lu?”