And so Unk' Mose and Morris came to their freedom and Tom came to his own. Towser became Tom's own. Uncle Moses insisted upon this and Towser highly approved of it. The giant hound worshiped the boy. Morris was speedily put to work driving a four-mule team for the commissary department of General Mitchell's force. He was accustomed to having food and lodging doled out to him, so it seemed quite natural to be given sleeping quarters (usually under the canvas cover of the wagon he drove) and rations, but it took him some months to recover from the shock of actually being paid wages for his work. When this too became natural, he felt that he was really free. Uncle Moses was too old for that sort of thing. He was bewildered by the rough and teeming life of an army-camp. He clung to Tom, was as devoted to him as Towser was, and much more helpless than the dog was. Towser made friends and important friends at once. It happened that food was rather short at headquarters the day after the fugitives found safety. Tom, waiting for a chance to go North, had been asked to share the tent of a staff-officer and to eat at headquarters' mess. An hour before dinner, one of his hosts was bewailing the scanty fare they were to have when Towser sidled around the corner of the tent with a fat chicken in his mouth and laid it with respectful devotion at his master's feet. There was a shout of applause and a roar from the assembled officers of "Good dog, good dog, Towser, do it again!" Whereupon, after some majestic wags of his mighty tail, he disappeared for a few minutes and did do it again. When the second chicken was laid at Tom's feet, Towser's position was assured. He was named an orderly by acclamation and was given a collar made of an old army belt, with the magic letters "U. S. A." upon it, a collar which he wore proudly through his happy life. Tom, who felt quite rich when his arrears of pay were handed him, decided to give himself a treat by making Uncle Moses happy. That is the best kind of treat man or boy can give himself. Make somebody else happy and you will be happy yourself. Try it and see. So, when he finally started back for Cairo and Washington he took both Uncle Moses and Towser with him. Neither of them had ever been on a railroad train before. Equally bewildered and equally happy, they sped by steam across the thousand miles between Cairo and Washington. In those days dogs could travel with their masters, without being banished to the baggage-car. As the three neared the latter city, the great dome of the Capitol sprang into sight. Tom eagerly pointed it out. "Look, Uncle Mose, look, Towser, there's the Capitol." "Dat's Freedum's home," murmured Unk' Mose. And Towser, stirred by the others' emotion, barked joyfully. He felt at home, too, because he was with Tom. CHAPTER VIII