Indeed, for months at a time they were its
only occupants, outside of strolling marauders and bands of foragers,
and but for their untiring devotion its tall chimneys would long since
have stood like tombstones over the grave of its ashes. Then he added,
with a break in his voice that told how deeply he felt it:--
"Do you know, Major, that when I was a prisoner at City Point that
darky tramped a hundred miles through the coast swamps to reach me,
crossed both lines twice, hung around for three months for his chance,
and has carried in his leg ever since the ball intended for me the
night I escaped in his clothes, and he was shot in mine.
"I tell you, suh, the color of a man's skin don't make much diffe'ence
sometimes. Chad was bawn a gentleman, and he'll never get over it."
As he was speaking, the object of his eulogy opened the hall door, and
the next instant a tall, red-headed man with closely trimmed
side-whiskers, and wearing a brown check suit and a blue necktie, ran
the gauntlet of Chad's profound but anxious bow, and advanced towards
the colonel, hat in hand.
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