Allan Gold thanked Christianna with simplicity. He had never had so pretty a thing, and he would keep it always, and every time he looked at it he would see Thunder Run and hear the bees in the flowers. It was very kind of her to make it for him, and--and he would keep it always. Christianna listened, and then, with her eyes upon the heartsease, began to say good-bye in her soft, drawling voice. "You're going down the mountain to-day, Mrs. Cole says. Well, good-bye. An' pap's goin' too, an' Dave an' Billy have gone. I reckon the birds won't be singin' when you come again--thar'll be ice upon the creeks, I reckon." She drew her shoulders together as though she shivered for all the May sunshine. "Well, good-bye." "I'll walk a piece of the road with you," said Allan, and the two went out of the gate together. Sairy, a pan of biscuits for dinner in her hand, looked after them. "There's a deal of things I'd do differently if I was a man! What was the use in sayin' that every time he looked at that thar bag he'd see Thunder Run? Thunder Run ain't a-keerin' if he sees it or if he don't see it! He might ha' said that every time he laid eyes on them roses he'd see Christianna!--Thar's a wagon comin' up the road an' a man on horseback behind. Here, I'll take the toll--" "No, I'll take it myself," said Tom, reaching for the tobacco box which served as bank. "If I can't 'list, I reckon I can get all the news that's goin'!" He hobbled out to the gate. "Mornin', Jake! Mornin', Mr. Robinson! Yes, 't is fine weather for the crops. What--" "The Rockbridge companies are ordered off! Craig and Bedford are going, too. They say Botetourt's time will come next. Lord! we used to think forest fires and floods were exciting! Down there in camp the boys can't sleep at night--every time a rooster crows they think it's Johnny Mason's bugle and the order to the front! Ain't Allan Gold going?" Sairy spoke from the path. "Course he's goin'--he and twenty more from Thunder Run. I reckon Thunder Run ain't goin' to lag behind! Even Steve Dagg's goin'--though I look for him back afore the battle. Jim's goin', too, to see what he can make out of it--'t won't harm no one, I reckon, if he makes six feet o' earth." "They're the only trash in the lot," put in Tom. "The others are first-rate--though a heap of them are powerfully young." "Thar's Billy Maydew, for instance," said Sairy. "Sho! Billy is too young to go--" "All the cadets have gone from Lexington, remarked the man on horseback. They've gone to Richmond to act as drill-masters--every boy of them with his head as high as General Washington's! I was at Lexington and saw them go. Good Lord! most of them just children--that Will Cleave, for instance, that used to beg a ride on my load of hay! Four companies of them marched away at noon, with their muskets shining in the sun. All the town was up and out--the minister blessing them, and the people crying and cheering! Major T. J. Jackson led them."