[Frontispiece: RODNEY BIDS HIS MOTHER FAREWELL.]
——
Four Illustrations by Geo. G. White.
PORTER & COATES
PORTER & COATES.
——
"So you are going to stick to your uniform, are you? I thought perhapsyou would be glad to see yourself in citizen's clothes once more, and soI told Jane to put one of your old suits on the bed where you would besure to see it."
It was Mrs. Gray who spoke, and her words were addressed to her sonRodney, who just then stepped out of the hall upon the wide gallerywhere his father and mother were sitting. Rodney had been at home abouthalf an hour just long enough, in fact, to take a good wash and exchangehis fatigue suit for a sergeant's full uniform.
In the first volume of this series of books we told of the attentionsour Union hero, Marcy Gray, received while he was on the way to his homein North Carolina, and how very distasteful and annoying they were tohim. We said that the passengers on his train took him for just what hewasn't—a rebel soldier fresh from the seat of war, or a recruit on hisway to join some Southern regiment—and praised and petted himaccordingly. Marcy didn't dare tell the excited men around him that hewas strong for the Union, that he had refused to cheer the Stars andBars when they were hoisted on the tower of the Barrington