neighbors,--Captain Beardsley, for instance,--who would use it against
him. He told of the letters he had received from Dixon, Billings and
Dick Graham, and they were all in the army, or going as soon as they
could get there. He hadn't heard from any other Barrington fellow, but
he believed that Tom Percival was the one black sheep in the flock--that
the others had gone with their States.

"I don't believe it," said Tom, with decided emphasis. "I am not the
only Union fellow there was in the academy, by a long shot, and I know
that those who opposed secession didn't do it to hear themselves talk.
Your cousin Marcy didn't go with his State, and there are others like
him scattered all over the country."

"Say," exclaimed Rodney, bending forward in his saddle and speaking just
loud enough for Tom, who was riding in advance, to catch his words. "Do
you believe Merrick's darkey can be depended on?"

"Of course," answered Tom. "Why not? What makes you ask the question?"

"I don't like the way he has of looking over his shoulder and listening
to our conversation. You are all right, of course, but I am afraid I
have said too much. I was so glad to get a chance to talk to you that I
never thought of him."

"Didn't you once assure your cousin Marcy that all the blacks in the
South would go with their masters against the abolitionists?" inquired
Tom.

"Yes, I believe I did, and I think so yet. I don't think we have a
darkey on our place who would accept his freedom to-day if it were
offered to him."

"There may not be one who would dare say so, because they know better;
but give the best of them the chance and see how quickly he would skip
over the border into abolition territory. If you think the darkies are
loyal to their masters, what are you afraid of? According to your idea,
if that darkey ahead betrays anybody, he ought to betray me, for I am
Union and he heard me tell his master so yesterday. But if you think he
can't be trusted to keep his mouth shut, we'll turn him to the
right-about in short order."

"And lose the benefit of his knowledge?" said Rodney. "I wouldn't do
that. Let him stay as long as Merrick told him to, and in the mean time
I will talk as though I knew he would repeat every word I say."

This thing of being obliged to place a curb upon their tongues when they
wanted to speak freely was annoying in the extreme; but it might have
saved them some trouble and anxiety if they had done it from the fir