the growth of maize and other crops for food.

By the time that the long period of inaction came to a close, Vincent
had completely recovered his strength, and was ready to rejoin the ranks
as soon as the order came from Colonel Stuart, who had promised to send
for him directly there was a prospect of active service.

One of Vincent's first questions, as soon as he became convalescent, was
whether a letter had been received from Tony. It had come, he was told,
among the last batch of letters that crossed the frontier before the
outbreak of hostilities, and Mrs. Wingfield had, as he had requested,
opened it. As had been arranged, it had merely contained Tony's address
at a village near Montreal; for Vincent had warned him to say nothing in
the letter, for there was no saying, in the troubled times which were
approaching when Tony left, into whose hands it might fall.

Vincent had, before starting, told his mother of the share he had taken
in getting the negro safely away, and Mrs. Wingfield, brought up, as she
had been, to regard those who assisted runaway slaves to escape in the
same light as those who assisted to steal any other kind of property,
was at first greatly shocked when she heard that her son had taken part
in such an enterprise, however worthy of compassion the slave might be,
and however brutal the master from whose hands he had fled. However, as
Vincent was on the point of starting for the war to meet danger, and
possibly death, in the defense of Virginia, she had said little, and
that little was in reference rather to the imprudence of the course he
had taken than to what she regarded in her own mind as its folly, and
indeed its criminality.

She had, however, promised that as soon as Tony's letter arrived she
would, if still possible, forward Dinah and the child to him, supplying
her with money for the journey, and giving her the papers freeing her
from slavery which Vincent had duly signed in the presence of a justice.
When the letter came, however, it was already too late. Fighting was on
the point of commencing, all intercourse across the border was stopped,
the trains were all taken up for the conveyance of troops, and even a
man would have had great difficulty in passing northward, while for an
unprotected negress with a baby such a journey would have been
impossible.

Mrs. Wingfield had therefore written four times at fortnightly intervals
to Tony, saying that it was impossible to send Dinah of