left of that money now. I paid Grunge the grocer nineteen dollars on't; for he knows I'm an honest man, and trusted me. Then I paid a man that's poorer'n I am for some work he done on my place, seven dollars and a half, and I had to pay my taxes or lose my farm."

"I saw Dr. Falkirk pay him that money, and Orly and I tramped all the way over here; for we have no horses at home now. He's got the money, and won't pay the bill. Mother wants the money very much," added Sandy.

"She hasn't got a dollar in the house," Orly put in, perhaps telling more than his brother wished to have revealed.

"Then you came over here to collect the bill at the muzzle of your gun," suggested Deck, who had seen the younger brother pick up his weapon, which had fallen on the floor.

"We meant to make him pay," said Sandy. "I believe he has the money, and I meant to search the house till I found it."

"You would have s'arched till the last gun fires, and you wouldn't found it then," protested the victim, as he took an old wallet from his pocket, which was found to contain about three dollars in silver. "That's all I've got in this world, and none in the next."

"I don't believe he has got any more money, Sandy," said Deck to his cousin, as he stepped up to him, and spoke to him in a low tone.

"I'm willin' to give him two dollars outen the little I got, though he abused me wus'n any man ever did in this world, and sha'n't in the next," interposed Pickford.

"I will take what I can get," replied Sandy, as he took the bill from his pocket.

The debtor paid him two dollars in silver; and if his mother, as Orly affirmed, had not a single dollar in the house, this small sum would be gladly received by her. Deck led the way out of the house, and his two cousins followed, just as Mrs. Pickford and her two small children came into the room. The sight of them was enough to assure the visitors of the poverty of the husband and father.

CHAPTER II

REVELATIONS OF A YOUNG GUARDSMAN

Dexter Lyon was very much perplexed by the situation of his uncle's family in Barcreek; for he owned his place, which had cost five thousand dollars, unencumbered; and about two years before he had received from the estate of his deceased brother twenty thousand dollars in cash and stocks.

"Of course the story that your mother had not a dollar in the house is a fiction, such as people who collect money, or don't want to pay it out, often tell," said the young cavalryman, as he went to the post where he had secured his horse.

"Fiction? What do you mean by that?" asked Sandy Lyon, the expression on whose face was very sad and discontented.

"You didn't mean that what you said was true?"

"What did I say that was not true?" inquired Sandy, looking at his cousin as though he was in doubt whether or not to conceal the correct answer to the question.

"Everybody in Barcreek knows that your father has gone to Bowling Green, and you said that your mother had not a dollar in the house," replied Deck, studying the expression on the face of his cousin. "You didn't mean that, did you?"

Sandy looked at his cousin, and each seemed to be considering the meaning of the other's looks. They were own cousins, and their homes were not more than a mile apart; but they had not met for three months. Politics, as the people of this locality generally called the two great questions of the day, Unionism and Secession, had created a great gulf between the two families. Judging from the threadbare and semi-miserable condition of the two sons of Captain Titus, times had gone hardly with the family.

"I did not say that mother had not a dollar in the house," said Sandy, after a long silence.

"Orly said so, and you did not contradict him; so it is all the same thing," added Deck.

"I did say so; and I said it because it was just as true as Breckinridge's long letter," said Orly earnestly.

"That is not saying much for the truth of it," answered Deck, with a smile on his handsome face; for he had the reputation of being a good-looking fellow, especially since he had donned his uniform.

"Well, it is true as that the sun shines in the sky," added Orly; and there was an expression of disgust on his face.

"But your father has plenty of money," suggested the young soldier.

"No, he hasn't," protested Orly.

"You are talking too fast, Orly," interposed Sandy reproachfully.

"We may as well let the cat out of the bag first as last, for she will scratch her way out very soon," replied Orly. "Mother will be glad enough to see that two dollars when Sandy offers it to her."

Just at that moment the blast of a bugle, or several of them, was heard in the direction of the Cross Roads, the way Deck was going when he was arrested by the cry for help from Pickford's house.

"What's that?" asked Sandy, as though he was glad to have the subject of the conversation changed, however it may have been with his more impulsive brother.

"It must be my company, or the squadron to which it belongs," replied Deck rather indifferently.

"How many companies have you, Deck?" asked Orly.

"Only two yet, hardly enough for a battalion."

"Where are they going now?"

"Probably they are out for drill; and I must fall in as soon as the companies come up," said Deck, as he mounted his horse and straightened himself up in the saddle, as though he wished to present a proper appearance before his cousins.

But the battalion or squadron was still at a considerable distance from him, and the young cavalryman could not help looking at the pinched faces of his cousins; for though they had ostensibly embraced the cause of Secession, he was full of sympathy for them. They looked as though they had been poorly fed, if not half-starved; and when the time had come for them to have new suits of clothes, they had not obtained them. But if Captain Titus's family was without money, it could be only a temporary matter, for he could hardly have exhausted his twenty thousand dollars in stocks and cash, though it was well known that he had contributed five thousand dollars for the purchase of arms and ammunition to be used by his company of Home Guards, which had now moved south to join the Confederate army.

"As I said before, your father had plenty of money," continued Deck, though he was not disposed to be over-inquisitive.

"He had at one time," Sandy admitted; and it was plain from his manner that he was not willing to tell all he knew about his father's financial affairs.

"I don't understand how your mother should be so short of money, Sandy; but it is none of my business, and I won't ask any more questions," added the cavalryman, as he whirled his restive horse about. "I thought you and Orly went with the company to Bowling Green, Sandy."

"We did; but we came back again," replied the elder brother. But there appeared to be something to conceal in regard to their return.

"There wasn't any fun in soldiering without any pay, and without even half enough to eat, with nothing to wear," added the plain-spoken younger brother.

"You needn't tell all you know, Orly," interposed Sandy, with a frown at his brother.

"You needn't snap at me, Sandy; for I told you before I had had enough of this thing, and I shall never join the company again," returned Orly earnestly. "Do you suppose I can enlist in one of your companies, Deck?"