“Forgive me, Captain Carleton; I’m glad you are going home, but I wasn’t at first; the bad, hard lumps kept rising in my throat as I thought of staying here alone without you, but they’re gone now. I prayed them all away, and I am glad you are going. I shall miss you dreadfully, but God will not forsake me. And, Captain Carleton, if you ever do,—see—my,—my”—— Isaac’s voice was choked with tears, and he could not at first articulate that dear word, but soon recovering, he went on—“see my mother, you’ll tell her about me. Tell her everything except how I’ve suffered. That would do no good—’twould only make her cry, and when she hears, as she maybe will, that I am dead, tell I wasn’t afraid, for the Saviour was with me. I’d rather you shouldn’t say good-bye at the last. It would make me feel so bad, only sometime before you go I want to tell you how much I love you for your goodness, and to ask you to be a”—— He did not finish the sentence, for Tom knew what he would say, and wiping both sweat and tears from off the worn face, looking so lovingly at him, he answered, “I _will_ try to be a better man. I never felt the need of it so much till I came here, and Isaac, I am going to stay till you, too, are exchanged. Did you think I would desert the boy who, but for me, would not have been a prisoner?” Isaac did not reply; only the soft, blue eyes lighted up with sudden, eager joy; the lips trembled as if they would speak, there was a perceptible shudder, and then Tom held in his arms a fainting, unconscious form. The revulsion of feeling was too great, and for many minutes Isaac gave no sign of life, but when at last he was restored again, he tried to dissuade Tom from making so great a sacrifice, but all in vain. Tom silenced every objection, and when the 3d of January came, and prisoners were released, another than Tom Carleton answered to his name, and marched from Richmond in his stead.