recruiter; they ain't too
particular about age these days. And he'll stay just as far from me as
he can until he is sworn in. He already knows how I feel about his
enlistin'."

Her gloved hands tightened on the reins. "If I could see John Morgan
himself--"

"_If_ you could get to Lexington and find him--"

"But Boyd's just a child. He hasn't the slightest idea of war except the
stories he hears ... no idea of what could happen to him, or what this
means to Merry. All this criminal nonsense about being a soldier--sabers
and spurs, and dashing around behind a flag, the wrong flag, too--" She
caught her breath in an unusual betrayal of emotion. And now she studied
Drew with some deliberation, noting his thinness, itemizing his
shabbiness.

He smiled tiredly. "No, I ain't Boyd's idea of a returnin' hero, am I?"
he agreed with her unspoken comment. "Also, we Rebs don't use sabers;
they ain't worth much in a real skirmish."

She flushed. "Drew, why did you go? Was it all because of Father? I know
he made it hard for you."

"You know--" Drew regarded a circling bird in the section of sky above
her head--"some day I hope I'll discover just what kind of a no-account
Hunt Rennie was, to make his son so unacceptable. Most of the Texans
I've ridden with in the army haven't been so bad; some of them are
downright respectable."

"I don't know." Again she flushed. "It was a long time ago when it all
happened. I was just a little girl. And Father, well, he has very strong
prejudices. But, Drew, for you to go against everything you'd been
taught, to turn Rebel--that added to his bitterness. And now Boyd is
trying to go the same way. Isn't there something you can do? I can't
stand to see that look in Merry's eyes. If we can just get Boyd home
again----"

"Don't hope too much." Drew was certain that nothing Marianna Forbes
could do was going to lead Boyd Barrett back home again. On the other
hand, if the boy had not formally enlisted, perhaps the rigors of one of
the General's usual cross-country scrambles might be disillusioning.
But, having tasted the quality of Boyd's stubbornness in the past, Drew
doubted that. For long months he had been able to cut right out of his
life Red Springs and all it stood for; now it was trying to put reins on
him again. He shifted his weight in the saddle.

"He's been restless all spring," his aunt continued. "We might have
known that, given an opportunity like this, the boy would do something