eman I reckon you'd like to
know--Captain Falconer. He's a son of John Barbour Falconer."

"Is that so?" exclaimed Meriwether Clopton, a wonderful change passing
over his face. "Well, I am glad to see a son of my dear old friend,
anywhere and at any time." He shook hands very cordially with the
Captain. "Let me see--let me see: if I am not mistaken, your first name
is Garnett; you were named after your maternal grandfather."

"That is true, sir," replied the Captain, with a boyish laugh that was
pleasing to the ear--he was not more than thirty. "But I am surprised
that you should remember these things so well."

"Why, my dear sir, it is not surprising at all. I have dandled you on my
knee many and many a time; I know the very house, yes, the very room, in
which you were born. Some of the happiest hours of my manhood were spent
with your father and mother in Washington. Your father is dead, I
believe. Well, he was a good man; among the best I ever knew. What of
your mother?"

"She has broken greatly," responded the Captain. "The war was a great
burden to her. She was a Virginian, you know."

"Yes--yes!" said Meriwether Clopton. "The war has been a dreadful
nightmare to the people on both sides; and it seems to be still going on
disguised as politics. Only last night, as you perhaps know, a posse of
soldiers arrested and carried off four of our worthiest young men."

"Yes, sir, I know of it and regret it," responded Captain Falconer. "And
I have no doubt that a majority of the people here are incensed at the
soldiers, forgetting that they are the mere instruments of their
superiors, and that their superiors themselves take their orders from
other superiors who are engaged in the game of politics. It is the duty
of a soldier to blindly obey orders. To pause to ask a question would be
charged to a spirit of insubordination. The army is at the beck and call
of what is called the Government, and to-day the Government happens to
be the radical contingent of the Republican Party. A soldier may detest
the service he is called on to perform, but he is bound to obey orders.
I can answer for the officer who was sent to arrest these young men. He
was boiling over with rage because he had been sent here on such an
errand."

"I am glad to hear that," declared Meriwether Clopton, with great
heartiness.

"His feelings were perfectly natural, sir," said Captain Falconer. "Take
the army as it stands to-day, and it would be hard,