tianna, and when, and why?"

"It was this a-way," began Christianna, with the long mountain day
before her. "It air so lonesome on Thunder Run, with Pap gone, an' Dave
gone, an' Billy gone, an'--an' Billy gone. An' the one next to me, she's
grown up quick this year, an' she helps mother a lot. She planted," said
Christianna, with soft pride, "she planted the steep hillside with corn
this spring--yes, Violetta did that!"

"And so you thought--"

"An' Pap has--had--a cousin in Richmond. Nanny Pine is her name. An' she
used to live on Thunder Run, long ago, an' she wasn't like the rest of
the Maydews, but had lots of sense, an' she up one mahnin', mother says,
an' took her foot in her hand, an' the people gave her lifts through the
country, an' she came to Richmond an' learned millinery--"

"Millinery!"

"Yes'm. To put roses an' ribbons on bonnets. An' she married here, a man
named Oak, an' she wrote back to Thunder Run, to mother, a real pretty
letter, an' mother took it to Mr. Cole at the tollgate (it was long ago,
before we children went to school) an' Mr. Cole read it to her, an' it
said that she had now a shop of her own, an' if ever any Thunder Run
people came to Richmond to come right straight to her. An' so--"

"And you couldn't find her?"

"An' so, last week, I was spinning. An' I walked up an' down, an' the
sun was shining, clear and steady, an' I could see out of the door, an'
there wasn't a sound, an' there wa'n't anything moved. An' it was as
though God Almighty had made a ball of gold with green trees on it and
had thrown it away, away! higher than the moon, an' had left it there
with nothin' on it but a dronin', dronin' wheel. An' it was like the
world was where the armies are. An' it was like I had to get there
somehow, an' see Pap again an' Dave an' Billy an'--an' see Billy. There
wa'n't no help for it; it was like I had to go. An' I stopped the wheel,
an' I said to mother, 'I am going where the armies are.' An' she says to
me, she says, 'You don't know where they are.' An' I says to her, I
says, 'I'll find out.' An' I took my sunbonnet, an' I went down the
mountain to the tollgate and asked Mr. Cole. An' he had a letter
from--from Mr. Gold--"

"Oh!" thought Margaret. "It is Allan Gold!"

"An' he read it to me, an' it said that not a man knew, but that he
thought the army was goin' to Richmond an' that there would be terrible
fightin' if it did. An' I went back up the mountain, an' I said to
mot