One evening my cousin was not feeling well, so Miss Carter and I took a long walk around the encampment and visited Lord Dunmore's deserted palace. As we walked along the sound of a nigger singing arrested our attention. It was Snake's voice, and his deep bass notes rang weirdly through the gathering darkness. Snake had a strange habit of fitting all his feelings into song, and now he sang in deep mournful notes "Dere is trouble ober heah An' dere's trouble ober dar-r An' I really do believe dere's trouble everywhar-r Trouble, troub-ll Trouble, troub-ll Oh dere's trouble on de ol' man's mine." We tried to stop him as he rode past us, but he pretended not to see or hear us, and rode away in the direction of the Major's quarters. "Snake has a sorrowful mood upon him this evening," said Miss Carter, after the singing had died away in the distance. "And by the same token, I reckon, there's some bad news ahead," I answered, "and we might as well go to the Major's and find it out." When we reached there, we found that orders had just come for us to move to Norfolk and take part in the operations against the British. I was glad the news was no worse, and I must say I felt a great relief, in spite of those I must leave behind me. This was my last evening to spend with my people, and I determined to know my fate in a certain direction, so I recalled a few things to Miss Carter that had passed between us. "My dear Dick," she said, "you have a most charming cousin. Why don't you marry her?" "In the first place, she would not marry me; and in the second, she is hardly to my way of thinking," I replied. "But you might alter your thoughts and ask her; she is pretty, wealthy, and a lady born," said Miss Carter. "So was your grandmother," I replied, "but that fact does not presuppose any love for her on my part, charming as she still is. You also have the qualities you have just mentioned, and you, you only, do I, or can I ever love." "If that is so, I shall be blessed with a most stupid husband," said Rose--and that was all. I bade her good-night at my aunt's front door and I think, or rather hope, it was quite dark. Then I went on my way whistling, as happy as a boy. The days that followed in the mud and rain near Norfolk, were disheartening enough, but I never for an instant despaired. My whole life seemed filled with a great coming joy, and even old soldiers like Barron and Bullbeggor wondered at my never-failing spirits. There were nearly a thousand of us, badly armed and half-frozen men, under the command of Colonel Woodford, camped at the end of the causeway known as Great Bridge. It was December, and the weaker men fell away rapidly, until there were scarcely two hundred able riflemen left in the trenches on the night of the eighth.