“Friend Bent hated war so heartily that he would have nothing to do with paroles, exchanges, or any martial process whatever, but bade me go when and where I liked, remembering to do by others as I had been done by.  Before I was well enough to go, however, I managed, by means of Copperhead influence and returned prisoners, to send a letter to my father and receive an answer.  You can imagine what both contained; and so I found myself penniless, but not poor, an outcast, but not alone.  Old Bent treated me like a prodigal son, and put money in my purse; his pretty daughters loved me for Margaret’s sake, and gave me a patriotic salute all round when I left them, the humblest, happiest man in Pennsylvania.  Margaret once said to me that this was the time for deeds, not words; that no man should stand idle, but serve the good cause with head, heart, and hand, no matter in what rank; for in her eyes a private fighting for liberty was nobler than a dozen generals defending slavery.  I remembered that, and, not having influential friends to get me a commission, enlisted in one of her own Virginia regiments, knowing that no act of mine would prove my sincerity like that.  You should have seen her face when I walked in upon her, as she sat alone, busied with the army work, as I’d so often seen her sitting by my bed; it showed me all she had been suffering in silence, all I should have lost had I chosen darkness instead of light.  She hoped and feared so much she could not speak, neither could I, but dropped my cloak, and showed her that, through love of her, I had become a soldier of the Flag.  How I love the coarse blue uniform! for when she saw it, she came to me without a word and kept her promise in a month.”

“Thunder! what a harnsome woman!” exclaimed Flint, as Phil, opening the golden case that held his talisman, showed them the beautiful, beloved face of which be spoke.

“Yes! and a right noble woman too.  I don’t deserve her, but I will.  We parted on our wedding-day, for orders to be off came suddenly, and she would not let me go until I had given her my name to keep.  We were married in the morning, and at noon I had to go.  Other women wept as we marched through the town, but my brave Margaret kept her tears till we were gone, smiling, and waving her hand to me,—­the hand that wore the wedding-ring,—­till I was out of sight.  That image of her is before me day and night, and day and night her last words are ringing in my ears,—­

“’I give you freely, do your best.  Better a true man’s widow than a traitor’s wife.’

“Boys, I’ve only stood on the right side for a month; I’ve only fought one battle, earned one honor; but I believe these poor achievements are an earnest of the long atonement I desire to make for five and twenty years of blind transgression.  You say I fight well.  Have I not cause to dare much?—­for in owning many slaves, I too became a slave; in helping to make many freemen, I liberate myself.  You wonder why I refused promotion.  Have I any right to it yet?  Are there not men who never sinned as I have done, and beside whose sacrifices mine look pitifully small?  You tell me I have no ambition.  I have the highest, for I desire to become God’s noblest work,—­an honest man,—­living, to make Margaret happy, in a love that every hour grows worthier of her own,—­dying, to make death proud to take me.”