a comparatively small number of hands are required to
raise corn crops. I have about a hundred and seventy working hands on
the Orangery, and shall be happy to place a hundred at your disposal for
as long a time as you may require them. If you want fifty more, you can
of course have them. Everything else must at present give way to the
good of the cause."

"I thank you much, Mrs. Wingfield, for your offers, and will put your
name down the first on the list of contributors."

"You seem quite to have recovered now," he said to Vincent a few minutes
afterward.

"Yes; I am ashamed of staying here so long, general. But I feel some
pain at times; and as there is nothing doing at the front, and my doctor
says that it is of importance I should have rest as long as possible, I
have stayed on. Major Ashley has promised to recall me as soon as there
is a prospect of active work."

"I think it is quite likely that there will be active work here as soon
as anywhere else," the general said. "We know pretty well what is doing
at Washington, and though nothing has been decided upon, there is a
party in favor of a landing in force here; and if so, we shall have hot
work. What do you say? If you like, I will get you a commission and
appoint you one of my aids-de-camp. Your knowledge of the country will
make you useful, and as Ashley has specially mentioned your name in one
of his dispatches, you can have the commission by asking for it.

"If there is to be fighting round here, it will be of more interest to
you defending your own home than in taking part in general engagements
for the safety of the State. It will, too, enable you to be a good deal
at home; and although, so far, the slaves have behaved extremely well,
there is no saying exactly what may happen if the Northerners come among
us. You can rejoin your own corps afterward, you know, if nothing comes
of this."

Vincent was at first inclined to decline the offer, but his mother and
sisters were so pleased at having him near them that he finally accepted
with thanks, being principally influenced by the general's last
argument, that possibly there might be trouble with the slaves in the
event of a landing in the James Peninsula by the Northerners. A few days
later there came an official intimation that he had received a
commission in the cavalry, and had at General Magruder's request been
appointed to his staff, and he at once entered upon his new duties.

Fortress Monroe,