yeh!"

"I'm not afraid to see Uncle Joel or Rube, Lissy."

"You must git away, Chad," quavered the old woman. "They mought hurt
ye!"

"I'm sorry not to see Jack. He's the only friend I have now."

"Why, Jack would snarl at ye," said the girl, bitterly. "He hates a
Yankee." She pointed again with her finger. "I reckon you can see that
door."

They followed him, Melissa going on the porch and the old woman
standing in the doorway. On one side of the walk Chad saw a rose-bush
that he had brought from the Bluegrass for Melissa. It was dying. He
took one step toward it, his foot sinking in the soft earth where the
girl had evidently been working around it, and broke off the one green
leaf that was left.

"Here, Lissy! You'll be sorry you were so hard on me. I'd never get
over it if I didn't think you would. Keep this, won't you, and let's be
friends, not enemies."

He held it out, and the girl angrily struck the rose-leaf from his hand
to her feet.

Chad rode away at a walk. Two hundred yards below, where the hill rose,
the road was hock-deep with sand, and Dixie's feet were as noiseless as
a cat's. A few yards beyond a ravine on the right, a stone rolled from
the bushes into the road. Instinctively Chad drew rein, and Dixie stood
motionless. A moment later, a crouching figure, with a long squirrel
rifle, slipped out of the bushes and started noiselessly across the
ravine. Chad's pistol flashed.

"Stop!"

The figure crouched more, and turned a terror-stricken face--Daws
Dillon's.

"Oh, it's you, is it--Well, drop that gun and come down here."

The Dillon boy rose, leaving his gun on the ground, and came down,
trembling.

"What're you doin' sneaking around in the brush?"

"Nothin'!" The Dillon had to make two efforts before he could speak at
all. "Nothin', jes' a-huntin'!"

"Huntin'!" repeated Chad. He lowered his pistol and looked at the sorry
figure silently.

"I know what you were huntin', you rattlesnake! I understand you are
captain of the Home Guard. I reckon you don't know that nobody has to
go into this war. That a man has the right to stay peaceably at home,
and nobody has the right to bother him. If you don't know it, I tell
you now. I believe you had something to do with shooting Uncle Joel."

The Dillon shook his head, and fumbled with his hands.

"If I knew it, I'd kill you where you stand, now. But I've got one word
to say to you, you hell-pup. I hate to think it, but you and I are on
t