"It's horses and mules again, Nan," gravely remarked Constance, and the three, facing toward him, with Miranda foremost, held soft debate. Whether the decision they reached was to submit or resist, the wide ears of the servants could not be sure, but by the time the soldier was dismounting the ladies had summoned the nerve to jest. "Be a man, Miranda!" murmured Constance. "But not the kind I was!" prompted Anna. "No," said her sister, "for this one coming is already scared to death." "So's Miranda," breathed Anna as he came up the steps uncovering and plainly uncomfortable. A pang lanced through her as she caught herself senselessly recalling the flag presentation. And then-- [Illustration: Music] "--oh! _oh!_" "Mrs. Callender?" asked the stranger. "Yes, sir," said that lady. "My business"--he glanced back in nervous protest as the drivers beneath gathered their reins--"will you kindly detain--?" "If you wish, sir," she replied, visibly trembling. "Isaac--" From the rear of the group came the voice of Anna: "Miranda, dear, I wouldn't stop them." The men regathered the lines. She moved half a step down and stayed herself on her sister's shoulder. Miranda wrinkled back at her in an ecstasy of relief: "Oh, Anna, do speak for all of us!" The teams started away. A distress came into the soldier's face, but Anna met it with a sober smile: "Don't be troubled, sir, you shall have them. Drive round into the basement, Ben, and unload." The drivers went. "You shall have them, sir, on your simple word of honor as--" "Of course you will be reimbursed. I pledge--" "No, sir," tearfully put in Constance, "we've given our men, we can't sell our beasts." "They are not ours to sell," said Anna. "Why, Nan!" "They belong to Kincaid's Battery," said Anna, and Constance, Miranda, and the servants smiled a proud approval. Even the officer flushed with a fine ardor: "You have with you a member of that command?" "We have." "Then, on my honor as a Southern soldier, if he will stay by them and us as far as Camp Moore, to Kincaid's Battery they shall go. But, ladies--" "Yes," knowingly spoke Miranda. "Hettie, Scipio, Dilsie, you-all can go 'long back to your work now." She wrinkled confidentially to the officer. "Yes," he replied, "we shall certainly engage the enemy's ships to-morrow, and you ladies must--" "Must not desert our home, sir," said Anna. "Nor our faithful servants," added the other two. "Ah, ladies, but if we should have to make this house a field hospital, with all the dreadful--" "Oh, that settles it," cried the three, "we stay!" LII HERE THEY COME! What a night! Yet the great city slept. Like its soldiers at their bivouac fires it lay and slumbered beside its burning harbor. Sleep was duty.