here I don't see how I can avoid
speaking of them," was Marcy's reply. "But circumstances will have to
determine what I shall say about them. I don't mean to let every Tom,
Dick, and Harry know how very friendly that captain was with us. I don't
think it would be just the thing. Good-by."

"Look a hyar, Marse Mahcy," began Julius; and then he hesitated for as
much as a minute before he went on to say, "You know dat niggah Mose?"

"Yes, I know Mose," answered Marcy, and he might have added that he knew
him to be the laziest and most worthless black man on the plantation.
"What of him?"

"Well, sar, moster," replied the boy, "when I fotch in dem guns an' luf
'em on de table I slip out de do' kase I aint wantin' to see no horns
an' hoofs like Marse Jack say de Yankees done got, an' I see Mose
talkin' wid dem soldiers in de road. Den he slip thoo 'em into de bresh
on de odder side de road an' never come out no mo'; an' den I come hyar
to tol' you."

"Do you mean to say that Mose has run away?" cried Marcy and his mother
in concert.

"Yes, sar, missus; dat's what I mean," replied Julius.

Marcy was much surprised to hear it, but after all it was nothing more
nor less than he had predicted when the war first broke out. The negroes
knew to a man that the contest between the North and South would decide
whether they were to be bondsmen or free, and it was natural that their
sympathies should be on the side of those who did not believe in
slavery, and that they should desire to be with them.

"You are quite sure that the Yankee soldiers did not take Mose away, are
you?" said Marcy, after a little pause.

Yes, Julius was positive about that. When the Federal captain left the
house Julius had hastened to the front porch in order to satisfy himself
on that very point, and had taken pains to see that Mose was not with
the soldiers when they rode away. Mose had gone on his own hook.

"I am afraid he will repent when it is too late," said Mrs. Gray, with a
sigh of regret. "Mose is too old, and too badly crippled with
rheumatism, to be of any use to his new friends."

"I suppose you and Morris will be going next," said Marcy, nodding at
Julius, "and that, if I want my filly brought to the door, I can bring
her myself."

"Oh, hursh, honey," replied the boy. "I aint a-keerin what dat old
niggah Morris gwine do, but Julius aint gwine run away."

"I think you are better off here than you would be anywhere else. The
Yankees