r to do so? Farragut
is still storming the batteries of Vicksburg and while a transport goes
this morning to take supplies to Captain Davis, and you could go down that
far on it, still it is scarcely the time for a girl to make a visit."

"I must go, General," said Jeanne firmly.

"Will you tell me why, my child?"

"I cannot, sir."

"But I cannot let you subject yourself to danger unless there is some
necessity for it. It seems to me that a mere visit could be postponed
until a safer season. Now unless there are urgent reasons for it I feel
compelled to forbid your going."

"Sir," said Jeanne blushing at her temerity yet speaking boldly
notwithstanding, "there are urgent reasons for my going. I do not wish to
tell them because they concern the government. But my father would not
have let me come had there not been necessity."

"You surely do not mean that you are an emissary of the government?"
exclaimed the General in surprise. "Why, you are but a little girl."

"But exceedingly patriotic, General," interrupted Mr. Huntsworth. "She
has given a fair to raise money for the soldiers, made I don't know
how many shirts, socks and handkerchiefs and just now emptied her purse
to send a soldier home to her parents to be taken care of. Best of all
she can relish a pun when she hears one which you will agree is a rare
accomplishment for a girl or even a woman. Oh, she is capable of anything."

"I believe it," laughed the General. "I fear that I shall have to give
up before such a formidable array of accomplishments. Have you really done
all those things?"

"All but the shirts," answered Jeanne shyly, "mother makes those. You
see father works for the government, mother is in the Women's Relief
Association and Dick is in the army, so I just had to do something to
help too."

"I see," said the General. "What is your father's name?"

"Richard Vance, sir."

"Richard Vance!" exclaimed the General. "Oh! I understand everything now.
You shall go to New Orleans, child, if our boats can get you there. The
transport will start in an hour. Can you be ready to go by that time?"

"I am ready now, sir."

"That is the bearing of a true soldier," approved the General. "I will
give you a letter to Farragut----"

"I have one to Commodore Porter, sir," interrupted Jeanne, producing the
missive. "He is my father's friend."

"That is all right," General Wallace hastily scanned the letter. "But I
will add a few lines to Farragut. S