"Juliana!" he exclaimed. "How did you know that I was here?"
"Ain't I done heard Miss Em'ly cry out, me always sleepin' so light,
an' I hears her run down the hail. An' then I dresses an' comes an'
sees you two through the crack o' the do', an' then I waits till you
come in."
Dick gave her a most affectionate greeting, knowing that she was as true
as steel. She rejoiced in her flowery name, as many other colored women
rejoiced in theirs, but her heart inhabited exactly the right spot
in her huge anatomy. She drew mother and son into the sitting-room,
where low coals still burned on the hearth. Then she went up to
Mrs. Mason's bedroom and put out the light, after which she came back
to the sitting-room, and, standing by a window in silence, watched over
the two over whom she had watched so long.
"Why is it that you can stay such a little while?" asked Mrs. Mason.
"Mother," replied Dick in a low tone, "General Thomas, who won the
battle at Mill Spring, has trusted me. I bear a dispatch of great
importance. It is to go to General Buell, and it has to do with the
gathering of the Union troops in the western and southern parts of our
state, and in Tennessee. I must get through with it, and in war, mother,
time counts almost as much as battles. I can stop only a few minutes
even for you."
"I suppose it is so. But oh, Dicky, won't this terrible war be over
soon?"
"I don't think so, mother. It's scarcely begun yet.
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