the Invisible. "Oh, turn unto me," she
said, "and have mercy upon me! give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and
save the son of Thine handmaid!" More she read, which sounded like a
prayer, but this is all that the boy remembers. He opened the door, put
his arm about her neck, and his head upon her bosom. What words he said
I do not know; but there, by her side, he gave back to God the life
which He had given. So the mother's prayer was answered. So sprang up
the seed which in toil and tears she had planted.

The boy worked, the world rolled round, and twelve years later Governor
Dennison offered him command of a regiment. He went home, opened his
mother's Bible, and pondered upon the subject. He had a wife, a child,
and a few thousand dollars. If he gave his life to the country, would
God and the few thousand dollars provide for his wife and child? He
consulted the Book about it. It seemed to answer in the affirmative; and
before morning he wrote to a friend,--"I regard my life as given to the
country. I am only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the
mortgage on it is foreclosed."

To this man, who thus went into the war with a life not his own, was
given, on the 16th of December, 1861, command of the little army which
held Kentucky to her moorings in the Union.

He knew nothing of war beyond its fundamental principles,--which are, I
believe, that a big boy can whip a little boy, and that one big boy can
whip two little boys, if he take them singly, one after the other. He
knew no more about it; yet he was called upon to solve a military
problem which has puzzled the heads of the greatest generals: namely,
how two small bodies of men, stationed widely apart, can unite in the
presence of an enemy, and beat him, when he is of twice their united
strength, and strongly posted behind intrenchments. With the help of
many "good men and true," he solved this problem; and in telling how he
solved it, I shall come naturally to speak of John Jordan, from the head
of Baine.

Humphrey Marshall with five thousand men had invaded Kentucky. Entering
it at Pound Gap, he had fortified a strong natural position near
Paintville, and, with small bands, was overrunning the whole Piedmont
region. This region, containing an area larger than the whole of
Massachusetts, was occupied by about four thousand blacks and one
hundred thousand whites,--a brave, hardy, rural population, with few
schools, scarcely any churches, and only o