. He'll have to go in as private, and that will bring him down a
peg or two."

Yes, Rodney calculated to go in as private if he got in at all, but the
prospect did not in the least dampen his ardor. Contrary to his
expectations his mother did not say one word to turn him from his
purpose; but good Southerner that she was, she heartily condemned the
circumstances which, according to her way of thinking, made the parting
necessary.

"I wish the _Mayflower_ had been sunk fathoms deep in the ocean before
she ever touched Plymouth Rock," she said to her husband. "The spirit of
intolerance those Puritans brought over here with them is what is taking
our boy from us now. No punishment that I can think of would be too
severe for them."

Rodney lived in hopes that some of the company would ride out to see him
during the course of the evening, but midnight came without bringing any
of them, and the disappointed Barrington boy, giving his mother the last
good-night kiss he imprinted upon her lips for more than fifteen long
months, went to bed satisfied that he was to be left to work out his own
destiny, with no Mooreville friend to encourage or advise him. He slept
but little, but appeared at the breakfast table as fresh as a daisy
and--dressed in citizen's clothing.

"This is a pill I don't like to swallow," said he, opening his coat and
looking down at himself. "I said I wouldn't take off my gray uniform
until the South had gained her independence; but I didn't know at the
time that I would find it necessary to pass through the enemy's lines.
Don't look so sober, mother. I just know I shall come out all right.
I'll surely write when I reach St. Louis, and again the very day I find
Dick Graham."

That was not a cheerful breakfast table, although every one tried to
make it so. Before the meal was half over the family carriage, with
Rodney's small trunk inside and his horse hitched behind, drew up at the
door, and a crowd of weeping servants gathered about the foot of the
wide stone steps to bid "young moster" good-by. Rodney saw it all
through the window, and when he got ready to start stood not on the
order of going, but cut short the parting and went at once. He arose
from his chair before he had finished his second cup of coffee, put on
his hat and light overcoat and turned toward his mother.

"Good-by, my dear boy," she said, in tones so firm and cheerful that
Rodney was astonished. "Whatever fate may have in store for