ed, "Is that it?"

It may be doubted whether Uncle Saunders, for all his apparent
confiding of his secret to Bob, was not playing a game with him, and
merely letting him suppose he had guessed his secret refuge. But,
however this was, and however clever he was at acting, Uncle Saunders
was not clever enough to foretell the future. One morning, as Uncle
Saunders was on his way to the stable, a party of men came galloping up
the hill from toward the river, and in ten minutes all Uncle Saunders'
plans were overthrown, and his horses, his cherished friends, were
being led away amid his reproaches and the lamentations of the boys.

"Sam, you'll have to get up earlier in the morning than this to get
ahead of us," laughed one of the men.

"Dat ain't my name," said Uncle Saunders, curtly.

"You think so much of your horses, you'd better come along and attend
to them. We'll pay you wages and set you free." Uncle Saunders shook
his head.

"Nor, I'm goin' to stay right heah and teck keer o' my mistis and de
chillern.--My master told me to teck keer ov 'em while he was away, and
I'm goin' to stay heah till he comes back."

"You'll stay here till the war's over, then," said the blue-coat.
"Your master, as you call him, will not be back here till then. We are
going on to Richmond."

"You won't get there," said Bob with spirit. "You've been trying to
get there for over three years and haven't done it."

"No, little Johnny, we haven't yet, but we're still on the way," said
the soldier.

By breakfast-time the plantation had been completely overrun; and all
that day the blue-clad troops were passing by.

It began to look after a little as if Bob's prediction were going to
come true. The Union Armies did not reach Richmond. Their advance was
stayed a few miles beyond Holly Hill. But Holly Hill and its family
were well within the Federal lines, and there was no chance of being
reached by any message or thing from the other side of the line. The
roads, knee-deep in mud, were filled with troops in blue uniforms
marching up and down, or with wagons passing backward and forward,
piled high with boxes or forage. The children grew so used to them
that they would go down to the roadside and watch them as they passed.
The only Confederates the children ever saw now were the dejected
prisoners who were being passed back on their way to prison. The only
news they ever received was the rumors which reached them from Federal