ather, what of Uncle Dick and Fred?"

"Colonel Shackelford is at home minus a leg. The Federal authorities have
paroled him. Fred is at home nursing him. Your uncle won imperishable
honors on the field of Shiloh. What a pity he has such a son as Fred!"

Calhoun's face clouded. The remembrance of his last meeting with Fred
still rankled in his breast. "I never want to see him again," he said.

The Judge sighed, "Oh, this war! this war!" he exclaimed; "how it disrupts
families! You and Fred used to be the same as brothers. I thought nothing
could come in between you and him. Calhoun, he is a noble boy,
notwithstanding he is a traitor to his state and the South. They say he is
going to resign from the army for the sake of his father. Won't you go and
see him?"

"No," brusquely answered Calhoun, yet he felt in his heart he was wronging
his cousin by his action.

Dinner was now announced by Aunt Chloe, and it did her honest old heart
good to see the way that Calhoun ate.

"I jes' believe dat air chile hab had nuthin' to eat fo' a week," she
declared.

"I reckon I shall have to go now," said Calhoun, rising reluctantly from
the table. "I have already made too long a visit for a country boy with
eggs to sell. I declare, Aunt Chloe, I do believe I should kill myself
eating if I stayed any longer."

"No danger of dat, chile," replied Aunt Chloe, grinning.

The words of parting were few. "Do be careful, my son," said Judge
Pennington, his voice trembling with emotion. "God only knows whether I
shall ever see you again or not."

As Calhoun started to leave, a pair of sharp eyes was watching him. Those
eyes belonged to a pretty girl named Jennie Freeman. The Freemans were
Judge Pennington's nearest neighbors, but Mr. Freeman was as strong a
Union man as the Judge was a Secessionist. Once the best of friends, a
coldness had sprung up between them since the opening of the war.

Jennie was two years older than Calhoun, but they had been playmates from
babyhood, and were great friends. Jennie called him her knight-errant.
More than once he had carried a pair of black eyes in fighting her battles
when some of the larger boys had teased her.

Jennie had seen the supposed country boy enter the kitchen of Judge
Pennington, and there was something in his walk and manner which attracted
her attention. "If that isn't Cal Pennington I am a sinner!" she exclaimed
to herself.

She was on the watch for him, and when he remained so