“Yes, yes, I do! You are the Yankee prisoner!” she declared.
“Who you helped escape!” he added, and he then told them that his name was Philip Carver, and he briefly described his flight to safety, and earnestly thanked the little girl who had brought him food, and, as he declared, saved his life.
“I meant to get a day’s leave and ride over to your farm before leaving here on purpose to thank you,” he added, and Mrs. Miller urged him to visit the farm and he gladly promised; and now they bade him a friendly good-bye and started for home.
“It has been a wonderful day,” Polly declared, as “Brownie” trotted swiftly through Sharpsburg along the road leading to the distant farm. “Just think, General McClellan shook hands with us, and praised Roxy! We will always remember to-day, won’t we, Roxy?”
“He praised you too, Polly!” Roxy eagerly declared. “I told him it was your plan to bring the circus, and he said you were a noble girl!”
Polly laughed happily. “I will remember that,” she said.
Roxy was tired out, and before they reached the farm she was nodding with sleep, and when Etta-Belle came running to lift her from the wagon Roxy was quite ready to let the negro woman carry her into the house.
But once indoors before the open fire she became wide awake and eager to tell her mother and father all the events of the exciting day: of General McClellan, and his friendly message to her father, and of all the laughter her “circus” had brought from the amused soldiers.
“And best of all, Father, I found the Yankee prisoner. His name is Philip Carver, and he is coming to spend the day,” she concluded happily.