as due perhaps to the fact that he was the companion and
friend of her boys.

That winter the place where the army went into winter quarters was
some distance from Oakland; but the young officers used to ride over,
from time to time, two or three together, and stay for a day or two.

Times were harder than they had been before, but the young people were
as gay as ever.

The colonel, who had been dreadfully wounded in the summer, had been
made a brigadier-general for gallantry. Hugh had received a slight
wound in the same action. The General had written to the boy's mother
about him; but he had not been home. The General had gone back to his
command. He had never been to Oakland since he was wounded.

One evening, the boys had just teased their Cousin Belle into reading
them their nightly portion of "The Talisman," as they sat before a
bright lightwood fire, when two horsemen galloped up to the gate,
their horses splashed with mud from fetlocks to ears. In a second,
Lucy Ann dashed headlong into the room, with her teeth gleaming:

"Here Marse Hugh, out here!"

There was a scamper to the door--the boys first, shouting at the tops
of their voices, Cousin Belle next, and Lucy Ann close at her heels.

"Who's with him, Lucy Ann?" asked Miss Belle, as they reached the
passage-way, and heard several voices outside.

"The Cunel's with 'im."

The young lady turned and fled up the steps as fast as she could.

"You see I brought my welcome with me," said the General, addressing
the boy's mother, and laying his hand on his young aide's shoulder, as
they stood, a little later, "thawing out" by the roaring log-fire in
the sitting-room.

"You always bring that; but you are doubly welcome for bringing this
young soldier back to me," said she, putting her arm affectionately
around her son.

Just then the boys came rushing in from taking the horses to the
stable. They made a dive toward the fire to warm their little chapped
hands.

"I told you Hugh warn't as tall as the General," said Frank, across
the hearth to Willy.

"Who said he was?"

"You!"

"I didn't."

"You did."

They were a contradictory pair of youngsters, and their voices,
pitched in a youthful treble, were apt in discussion to strike a
somewhat higher key; but it did not follow that they were in an
ill-humor merely because they contradicted each other.

"What _did_ you say, if you didn't say that?" insisted Frank.

"I said he _looked_ as if he _tho