“Then you’re my Colonel’s boy--many a time I followed him where men were failin’ like leaves--I wish to God I was with him now in the ground! Don’t tell anybody you saw me,--them that knowed me will think I’m dead, and it’s better so.” “Good-bye, sir,” said the child “I’m sorry for you if you’ve got no home. I’m after the doctor for my Mama,--she’s very sick. I’m afraid she’s going to die, and if you ever pray I wish you’d pray for her.” The soldier came closer. “I wish I knew how to pray, my boy. But it seemed to me I forgot everything that was good in the war, and there’s nothin’ left but death and hell. But I’ll not forget you, good-bye!” When Charlie was in bed, he lay an hour with wide staring eyes, holding his breath now and then to catch the faintest sound from his mother’s room. All was quiet at last and he fell asleep. But he was no longer a child. The shadow of a great sorrow had enveloped his soul and clothed him with the dignity and fellowship of the mystery of pain. CHAPTER II--A LIGHT SHINING IN DARKNESS IN the rear of Mrs. Gaston’s place, there stood in the midst of an orchard a log house of two rooms, with hallway between them. There was a mud-thatched wooden chimney at each end, and from the back of the hallway a kitchen extension of the same material with another mud chimney. The house stood in the middle of a ten acre lot, and a woman was busy in the garden with a little girl, planting seed. “Hurry up Annie, less finish this in time to fix up a fine dinner er greens and turnips an’taters an a chicken. Yer Pappy’ll get home to-day sure. Colonel Gaston’s Nelse come last night. Yer Pappy was in the Colonel’s regiment an’ Nelse said he passed him on the road comin’ with two one-legged soldiers. He ain’t got but one leg, he says. But, Lord, if there’s a piece of him left we’ll praise God an’ be thankful for what we’ve got.” “Maw, how did he look? I mos’ forgot--’s been so long sence I seed him?” asked the child. “Look! Honey! He was the handsomest man in Campbell county! He had a tall fine figure, brown curly beard, and the sweetest mouth that was always smilin’ at me, an’ his eyes twinklin’ over somethin’ funny he’d seed or thought about. When he was young ev’ry gal around here was crazy about him. I got him all right, an’ he got me too. Oh me! I can’t help but cry, to think he’s been gone so long. But he’s comin’ to-day! I jes feel it in my bones.” “Look a yonder, Maw, what a skeer-crow ridin’ er ole hoss!” cried the girl, looking suddenly toward the road. “Glory to God! It’s Tom!” she shouted, snatching her old faded sun-bonnet off her head and fairly flying across the field to the gate, her cheeks aflame, her blond hair tumbling over her shoulders, her eyes wet with tears.