s' come. Yes, Lawd, I did, but I warn' countin' on
Marse Dan. He warn' mo'n wais' high ter ole Rainy-day, but de furs' thing I
know dar wuz ole Rainy-day on de yerth wid Marse Dan a-lashin' 'im wid de
branch er hick'ry."

"We shall never forget you--Dan and I," answered Betty, as she took the
basket, "and when the time comes we will repay you."

The old negro smiled and turned from her, and Betty, quickening her pace,
ran on to Uplands, reaching the house a little breathless from the long
walk.

In the chamber upstairs she found Mrs. Ambler sitting before the window
with her open Bible on the sill, where a spray of musk roses entered from
the outside wall.

"All well, mamma?" she asked in a cheerful voice.

Mrs. Ambler started and turned slowly from the window.

"I see a great light on the road," she murmured wonderingly.

Crossing to where she sat, Betty leaned out above the climbing roses and
glanced to the mountains huddled against the sky.

"It is General Sheridan going up the valley," she said.

VIII

THE LAST STAND

In the face of a damp April wind a remnant of Lee's army pushed forward
along an old road skirted by thin pine woods. As the column moved on
slowly, it threw out skirmishers on either flank, where the Federal cavalry
hovered in the distance. Once in an open clearing it formed into a hollow
square and marched in battle line to avoid capture. While the regiments
kept in motion the men walked steadily in the ranks, with their hollowed
eyes staring straight ahead from their gaunt, tanned faces; but at the
first halt they fell like logs upon the roadside, sleeping amid the sound
of shots and the stinging cavalry. With the cry of "Forward!" they
struggled to their feet again, and went stumbling on into the vast
uncertainty and the approaching night. Breathless, starving, with their
rags pinned together, and their mouths bleeding from three days' rations of
parched corn, they still kept onward, marching with determined eyes to
whatever and wherever the end might be. Petersburg had fallen, Richmond was
in flames behind them, the Confederacy was, perhaps, buried in the ruins of
its Capitol, but Lee was still somewhere to the front, so his army
followed.

"How long have we been marching, boys? I can't remember," asked Dan, when,
after a short rest, they formed again and started forward over the old
road. In the tatters of his gray uniform, with his broken shoes tied on his
feet and his bla