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Never had the two old servants been so happy as they were that night
after their rescue. At first they looked on it as a miracle, in which
the spirits of their young master and his body-servant, their only
son, had come back to earth to rescue them, and for a while their
prayers and exhortations took on the uncanny tone of superstition.
But after they had heard them talk in the old natural way and seen
Captain Tom walking in the living flesh, they became satisfied that
it was indeed their young master whom they had supposed to be dead.

Jack Bracken, with all the tenderness of one speaking to little
children, explained it all to them--how he had himself carried
Captain Tom off the battle-field of Franklin; how he had cared for
him since--even to the present time; how Ephraim would not desert his
young master, but had stayed with them, as cook and house boy. And
how Captain Tom had now become well again.

Jack was careful not to go too much into details--especially Ephraim
having lived for two years within a few miles of his parents and not
making himself known! The truth was, as Jack knew, Ephraim had become
infatuated with the free-booting life of Jack Bracken. He had gone
with him on many a raid, and gold came too easy that way to dig it
out of the soil, as in a cotton field.

The old people supposed all this happened far away, and in another
country, and that they had all come home as soon as they could.

With this they were happy.

"And now," added Jack, "we are going to hide with you a week or so,
until Captain Tom can lay his plans."

"Thank God--thank God!"--said Uncle Bisco, and he would feel of his
young master and say: "Jes' lak he allus wus, only his hair is a
leetle gray. An' in the same uniform he rid off in--the same gran'
clothes."

Captain Tom laughed: "No, not the same, but like them. You see, I
reported at Washington and explained it to the Secretary of War,
Jack. It seems that Mr. Lincoln had been kind enough to write a
personal letter about me to my grandfather,--they were old friends.
It was a peculiar scene--my interview with the Secretary. My
grandfather had filed this letter at the War Department before he
died, and my return to life was a matter of interest and wonder to
them. And so I am still Captain of Artillery," he smiled.

In the little cabin the old servants gave him the best room, cleanly
and sweet with an old-fashioned feather-bed and counterpane. Jack
Bracken had a cot