Berry’s morning lessons with her father were now for a time discontinued. The little household in the mountain cabin realized that the encampment of union soldiers at Pittsburg Landing meant that a battle was near at hand; and Berry’s thoughts, as well as those of her mother and father, were absorbed in what General Grant’s next movement might be.

Mollie Bragg came nearly every morning to practise her lessons in writing, and apparently had quite forgotten Berry’s thoughtless unkindness. Berry presented the slate and pencil to the little girl so that she might use it at home; and this gift made Mollie sure that Berry had not meant to be unkind. Mrs. Arnold had again fitted Mollie out with a neat dress of stout gingham. Mrs. Bragg had made the poor cabin neat and livable, and had planted the rough garden plot with early vegetables. Every day she and Mollie kept a sharp outlook for Len. But General178 Beauregard was doing his best to get his forces at Corinth ready for a march on the enemy and no absences were permitted. But Len was to see his mother and sister, nevertheless, much earlier than he then imagined.

Lily’s first night of “guard duty,” as Berry called it, passed without her seeing or hearing anything to awaken her fears. The colored girl, however, had slept for several hours as she crouched against a mossy log near Shiloh church. But Lily was sure that she would have awakened at the slightest sound. On her way home, in the gray light of the early morning, she had stopped at the red-buds and found a sealed letter under the rock at the roots of the tree.

“I reckons I’ll let Missie Berry see dis fus’,” she resolved, and followed Berry’s plan of reaching her chamber by the help of the old oak; so that Berry was suddenly awakened, just at daybreak, by a gentle touch on her curly hair and a whispered word:

“Missie Berry, Missie Berry, de letter’s cum,” said Lily.

For a moment Berry believed herself dreaming, and rubbed her eyes sleepily. Then instantly she was wide awake, and seized the letter.179 It was enclosed in a brown paper, and tied with a coarse string. In the dim morning light Berry read: “For General Johnston, at Corinth,” and beneath it in large letters, “RUN!”

The two girls stared at each other with sober faces.

“W’ot yo’ gwine ter do, Missie Berry? Yo’ gwine ter gib dis letter to yo’ pa?” questioned Lily.

Berry shook her head. “I don’t know yet. If I give it to Father I would have to tell him about my going to the witch-tree at midnight,” she whispered. “I’ll have to think what I will do.” And Lily nodded and made her way noiselessly to the kitchen.

Berry turned the letter over in her hand. To open a letter addressed to another person did not occur to her. But this was a spy’s letter; it must contain news of the union army, secretly obtained, and Berry knew that it would be of value to the enemy and that it would be a service if she could give it to a union officer.

“I’ll carry it to the Pittsburg camp,” she resolved.

The moment breakfast was over Berry sauntered out to the porch and instantly disappeared.180 She scrambled down the rough slope of the ravine, and followed a path just above the Corinth road. It was a day of early April, and a damp mist lay over the river and drifted in little clouds along the hills. Berry had to make her way with some caution, as recent rains had made the path boggy and uncertain; but within an hour she was in sight of the rows of white tents that dotted the rough plateau facing the Tennessee River. Not a single spadeful of earth had been thrown up for entrenchments; no horseman patrolled the encampment. As Berry stood for a moment looking at what seemed to her so wonderful a sight, she heard the sound of laughter, and a moment later a group of soldiers came from a tent very near to where she was standing.

“What’s this?” exclaimed one of the men, as he discovered a slight boyish figure in a well-worn flannel blouse and knickerbockers, and wearing a red tam-o’-shanter cap, standing directly in front of h............