hese greeted him as though they had never expected
to see him again. They knew where he had been and what he had been
doing, and had thought of and prayed for him as often as they heard the
roar of the big guns, which the breeze now and then brought faintly to
their ears. They made such a fuss over him that Marcy was saved the
trouble of awaking his mother, whom he found waiting for him in the
sitting-room.

"You told me that when I came home you wanted me to be able to say that
I did my duty," said the young pilot, as his mother laid her head on his
shoulder and cried softly. "I can honestly say it, and I have a letter
in my pocket from Captain Benton that will bear me out in it."

"I am sorry you brought it with you," said Mrs. Gray. "The country is
overrun with Confederate soldiers, and from the way some of them behave
I am led to believe that they know all about us."

"I'll bet they do," said Marcy bitterly. "You know, of course, that
Beardsley was carried away the same night and for the same purpose I
was? Well, the Yankees did not call upon him to act as pilot, but put
him in irons at once; and I am sorry to say that he was paroled at the
time the other prisoners were. But you need not worry about my letter,
as I shall presently show you. Sit down, and tell me what you have done
to kill time since I have been gone."

To his relief Marcy found that Julius had told the truth for once in his
life, and that his mother had had nothing beyond his absence to trouble
her, if we except the demonstrations that some of the paroled prisoners
made while they were going by the house. They had not annoyed her by
coming into the yard, as they might have done if their officers had not
been along to restrain them, but they had whooped and yelled and
threatened in a way that was enough to frighten anybody. She said that
the excitement and alarm that took possession of the people when the
news came that Roanoke Island was in the hands of the invading forces,
was something she would remember as long as she lived. The news must
have reached Nashville and Plymouth on the night of the surrender, for
at daylight the next morning the road in front of the house was filled
with fugitives who were making all haste to carry their property out of
harm's way. If a body of Yankee cavalry had suddenly appeared at their
heels it would scarcely have caused a flutter among them, for they were
panic-stricken already.

"The world is full of fools,