g
the body to Judge Roger Barton. She stepped on board the little steamer
absolutely alone. Every servant had gone to the camp of the soldiers or
had entered the service of the crowd of marauders who decided to return
to Fairview and occupy the house.

Jennie had gone through so much the tired spirit refused to respond to
further sensations. She obeyed orders in a dumb mechanical way.

The officers at New Orleans opened her baggage and searched it without
ceremony, or the slightest show of interest on her part.

They were administering the "oath" of loyalty to the United States. She
would have to turn Yankee to do this last duty of love. She covered her
face with her hands and prayed breathlessly for the boys and for the
Confederacy while the words of the oath were mumbled by the officer--

"So help you God?"

Jennie's only answer was to close her eyes and pray harder.

"So help you God?" the officer shouted again.

The girl lifted her tear-stained face and nodded, closed her eyes again
and prayed.

"Help them, O God,--my brothers Tom and Jimmie and Billy and Dick
Welford--and--and the man I love--save them and their cause for Jesus'
sake--I don't know what they made me say--I only did it for poor
grandpa's sake--I didn't mean it. Forgive me, dear Lord, and save my
people!"

The Judge met them with a carriage and hearse. He slipped his strong arm
around the girl, drew her close and kissed the waving brown hair again
and again.

"Dear little sis--you're at home now," he said softly.

A shiver ran through her figure and she sat bolt upright.

"No, Big Brother," she answered firmly, "I'm not. New Orleans is in the
hands of the enemy. I'd set it on fire and wipe it from the face of the
earth to-morrow if I could sweep old Ben Butler and his men into the
bottomless pit with its ashes--"

She paused at the look of pain on his face.

"Except you--dear--you're my brother, always my dear Big Brother and
I'll love you forever. What you think right is right--for you. You are
for the Union, because you believe it's right. I honor you for being
true to your convictions--"

"You can never know what it has cost me--Honey--"

She drew him down and kissed him tenderly.

"Yes, I do know--and it's all right--even if you draw your sword and
meet us in battle--you're fighting for the right as God shows it to
you--but I've just one favor to ask--"

"I'll do anything on earth for you I can--you know that--"

She looke