ut of
all State troops then in service.

The Deans little knew then how much trouble Captain Chad Buford, whose
daring service against guerillas had given him great power with the
Union authorities, had saved them--how he had kept them from arrest and
imprisonment on the charge of none other than Jerome Conners, the
overseer; how he had ridden out to pay his personal respects to the
complainant, and that brave gentleman, seeing him from afar, had
mounted his horse and fled, terror-stricken. They never knew that just
after this he had got a furlough and gone to see Grant himself, who had
sent him on to tell his story to Mr. Lincoln.

"Go back to Kentucky, then," said Grant, with his quiet smile, "and if
General Ward has nothing particular for you to do, I want him to send
you to me," and Chad had gone from him, dizzy with pride and hope.

"I'm going to do something," said Mr. Lincoln, "and I'm going to do it
right away."

And now, in the spring of '64, Chad carried in his breast despatches
from the President himself to General Ward at Lexington.

As he rode over the next hill, from which he would get his first
glimpse of his old home and the Deans', his heart beat fast and his
eyes swept both sides of the road. Both houses: even the Deans'--were
shuttered and closed--both tenantless. He saw not even a negro cabin
that showed a sign of life.

On he went at a gallop toward Lexington. Not a single rebel flag had he
seen since he left the Ohio, nor was he at all surprised; the end could
not be far off, and there was no chance that the Federals would ever
again lose the State.

On the edge of the town he overtook a Federal officer. It was Harry
Dean, pale and thin from long imprisonment and sickness. Harry had been
with Sherman, had been captured again, and, in prison, had almost died
with fever. He had come home to get well only to find his sister and
mother sent as exiles to Canada. Major Buford was still in prison, Miss
Lucy was dead, and Jerome Conners seemed master of the house and farm.
General Dean had been killed, had been sent home, and was buried in the
garden. It was only two days after the burial, Harry said, that
Margaret and her mother had to leave their home. Even the bandages that
Mrs. Dean had brought out to Chad's wounded sergeant, that night he had
captured and lost Dan, had been brought up as proof that she and
Margaret were aiding and abetting Confederates. Dan had gone to join
Morgan and Colonel