"The President has issued a proclamation to this effect, but there has hardly been time to enforce it to any great extent yet. But of these matters I have nothing to say yet. The important point now is that I shall go in the Bellevite to Mobile Bay, and by force or strategy I shall bring off my daughter and the family of my brother." "Then I suppose Christy and I are to be sent on shore in the tug alongside," suggested Mrs. Passford. "That is precisely what I wanted the tug for," added the husband. "I should be willing to go with you, and share whatever dangers you may incur," said the lady, who had by this time come to a full realization of what war meant. "I should be a heathen to allow you to do so. A woman would be more of a burden than a help to us. You had better return to Bonnydale, Julia, where I am sure you can render more service to your country than you could on board of the steamer. All that I am, all that I have, shall be at the service of the Union; and I wish you to act for me according to your own good judgment." "I shall do whatever you wish me to do, Horatio," added the lady. "My mission will be a dangerous one at best, and the deck of the steamer will be no place for you, Julia." "Very well; Christy and I will take the tug as soon as you are ready to have us leave you." "Am I to go on shore, father?" demanded Christy, with a look of chagrin on his handsome face, browned by exposure to the sun on the ocean. "I want to go with you; and I am sure I can do my share of the duty, whatever it may be." "You are rather young to engage in such an enterprise as that before me, Christy," added his father, as he gazed with pride at the face and form of his son, who had thrown back his head as though he felt the inspiration of all the manliness in his being. "If there is to be a war for the Union, I am a Union man, or boy, as you like; and it would be as mean and cowardly for me to turn my back to the enemy as it would be for you to do so, sir," replied Christy, his chest heaving with patriotic emotion. "I am willing you should go with me," added Captain Passford, turning from the young man to his mother. There was a tear in the eyes of the lady as she looked upon her son. It was hard enough to have her husband leave her on such a mission: it was doubly so to have Christy go with him. "Christy might be of great service to me," said his father. "I look upon this war as a very solemn event; and when a man's country calls upon him to render his time, his comfort, even his life, he has no moral right to put himself, his father, his brother, or his son in a safe place, and leave mere hirelings, the thoughtless, reckless adventurers, to fight his battle for him." "I am ready to go, sir," added Christy. "He may go with you, if you think it best," said the mother with a quivering lip. "I shall miss him, but I am sure you would miss him more."