iggahs wuk
demselves to death for you. Now you go in de house an' tell your maw
whar you going, an' I bring de hoss an' holp you in de saddle."

Marcy good-naturedly complied, and hearing voices coming from the
dining-room he went in there, and found Julius listening to a lecture
from Mrs. Gray on the sinfulness of stealing. But Julius defended
himself with spirit, and declared that for once his habit of picking up
any little articles he found lying around loose had been productive of
good to every member of the family.

"When I put dat pin in my pocket, missus, I know I ain't goin' to steal
it," he protested, with so much earnestness and with such an appearance
of sincerity that almost anybody except Mrs. Gray would have believed
him. "I don't do no stealin'. I jes' want to look at de pin, an' I goin'
put it back when I get done lookin' at it. But de oberseer he done took
it away from me, an' dat's de way you find out what sort of a man he is.
No, missus; I don't steal. I always tell de troof."

Marcy Gray did not ride to Nashville with any hope of meeting Aleck
Webster that day, and consequently he was most agreeably surprised when
he saw him standing on the steps of the post-office. He did not look or
act like a man who had been engaged in any underhand business, and
neither did Colonel Shelby, who hastened down the steps and came across
the road to the hitching-rack to help Marcy off his horse.

"So glad to see you safe back," was the way in which he greeted the boy.
"Your brother said that if you came down here without him some day we
might know he was in the navy; so I suppose that is where he is. He
didn't waste much time in going, did he? What's the news from Newbern?"

Marcy cut his replies as short as he could without being rude, and went
into the office to look at his mother's box, which had been emptied by
the coachman half a dozen hours before. He exchanged a very slight nod
and a wink with Aleck Webster as he passed him, and the latter, who
seemed to know just what he meant by the pantomime, mounted his horse
when no one but Marcy was watching him and went down the road toward
Mrs. Gray's plantation. There were plenty of loungers in the office,
young Allison, of course, being one of the most talkative ones among
them, and although they seemed to know where Jack was, they could not
imagine what had become of Hanson.

"I tell you honestly, Marcy, that if it hadn't been for that Confederate
flag in your