nurtured young men all, with soft hands and lions' hearts, had worked
with pick and shovel, and with the rank and file, in throwing up
breastworks. And so quietly was the work done that neither a sailor in
the near harbor, nor the British sentry but a little away, had heard a
sound.

"Although not a great victory for us," Lionel wrote, "we yet showed what
kind of men the British have to fight, and our untrained men put to
flight soldiers of long experience and training. We feel sure of victory
in the end."

One balmy night in August, Sally saw Mammy Leezer trundling up the road,
her red and yellow rabbit's ears, or points of her bandanna turban,
cocked high and important, her white cotton skirt stiff as starch could
make it, and her pipe no doubt in a deep pocket.

Mammy was the only person at Ingleside who had known anything about
Sally at Slipside Row. But it will be remembered she also knew something
of her father, and always declared she "nebber b'long'd in dat Row,
nohow."

Sally answered Mammy's cheerful greeting, and then asked, gaily:

"Going to war, Mammy?"

"Goin' to war?" cried Mammy, with a fearful rolling of eyes. "Now what
you take me fo', honey? But I spect you heer'd de news. Dat Mars' Lion,
he comin' home soon. Mars' Perc'val, he talkin' o' goin' to Inglan'
'fore long, and Mars' Lion, he hev to come back to Virginny and look
affer de plantation and we at de cabins."

Then Mammy lowered her voice, and asked, with a mysterious air:

"Hev you done heer'd 'bout dat Hotspur helpin' Mars' Lion get away to
Bosting town?"

"How was that?" asked Sally, for indeed not a word of gossip had she
heard about the affair.

Mammy went on:

"Ob course Mars' Perc'val won't hev a word said to him on de subjec',
and I doan't b'leeve he know what to tink ob tings. But shor's yore
born, honey, I b'leeve de folks up at de house tried in some way to keep
Mars' Lion from goin' to Bosting with dose odder boys he done go with.

"And, honey,"--Mammy Leezer held up a dark finger to make more dreadful
her solemn air,--"one night las' May, dat Hotspur, he done gone from his
outside box, and needer hoof, head, or tail ob him lef'. And dar warn't
no _man_ come for dat hoss! Bill, he wor awake all night, and lil Jule,
she hev a mis'ry in her lil stummick, so I'se up 'bout all night, and no
one come round dat stable we knows dat night, yet, in de mornin', dat
Hotspur, he clean gone."

Mammy put her hand, edgewise, side