ill do good service," said
Harry, with sincerity in his tones.

"I'm sartin of hit," she returned, confidently. "I hev adopted ye in
my heart ez a son, an' I feel towards ye ez ef ye were raylly uv my own
kin. I know ye'll be a credit to yerself an' me."

While the lead was melting upon the bed of coals she drew out on the
hearth, she sat in her low chair with her hands clasped about her knees,
and her great gray eyes fixed upon the depths of a mass of glowing
embers in the fireplace, as if she saw there vivid pictures of the past
or revelations of the future.

"How wonderfully bright an' glowin' hit is in thar," she said musingly;
"hit's purer an' brighter then ennything else on arth. 'Purified ez
by fire,' the Book says. My God, Thou has sent Thy fires upon me ez a
sweepin' flood. Hev they purified me ez Thou wisht? How hit shines an'
glows away in thar! Hit seems so deep sometimes thet I kin skeercely
see the end. A million times purer an' brighter is the light thet shines
from the Throne uv God. THEY'RE lookin' at thet now, while I still tarry
heah. Husband an' son, when will I go to ye? When will I finish the work
the Lord hez fur me ter do? When will the day uv my freedom come? May-be
to-morrer--may-be to-morrer."

She began singing softly:

"An' when a shadder falls acrost the winder
Of my room,
When I am workin' my app'inted task,
I lift my head to watch the door an' ask
If he is come;
An' the angel answers sweetly
In my home:
'Only a few more shadders
An' He will come.'"

"Aunt Debby, honey," said Fortner, rousing himself from a nap in his
chair, "thet thar lead's burnin'. Better run yer bullets."

She started as if waked from a trance, pressed her slender thin hands
to her eyes for an instant, and then taking the molds up in her left hand
she raised the ladle with her right, filled them from it, knocked the
molded balls out by a tap on the floor, and repeated the process with
such dexterous quickness that she had made fifty bullets before harry
realized that she was fairly at work.

"Ye men hed better lay down an' git some sleep," she said, as she
replaced the molds and ladle on the shelf. "Ye'll need all yer strength
to-morrer. I'll neck these bullets, an' git together some vittles fur
the trip, an' then I'll lay down a while. We orter start airly--soon
arter daybreak."

They did start early the next morning, with