“Grant’s soldiers are now on their first campaign, untrained and unused to war. But most of them are from the West, hardy and brave, and if Grant moves against Forts Henry and Donelson it will open the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, and carry forward the Union front of war two hundred miles,—for General Grant would have Foote’s fleet of iron-clads on the river to make victory sure,” declared Mr. Arnold.
“If the Tennessee is once opened there will be conflicts near Pittsburg Landing, at Corinth—perhaps even nearer to us than that,” responded Mrs. Arnold anxiously.
Mr. Arnold acknowledged that might be possible. “But, even so, we could not be in a safer place than in this mountain ravine. An army might march by on the Corinth road, or arrive at Pittsburg Landing, without troubling us. I am much more anxious about Berry’s adventures with these wanderers along the trails than I am about armies and battles coming to Shiloh,” he said, and at the sound of her own name Berry jumped up and ran to the big settle where her mother and father were sitting.
“What army, Father?” she asked.
“General Grant’s army of West Tennessee, and the Confederate army of Commander-in-Chief Albert S. Johnston,” replied her father. “Are you going to meet strange woodsmen or fleeing negroes every time you leave the house?” he added, smiling down at Berry’s serious face.
“I wish spring would come! I’m tired of winter,” said Berry.
“It won’t be long now,” her mother declared. “If the weather turns warm after this storm the catkins will begin to show on the alder bushes, the wild geese will come flying over, and spring will be close at hand. But it’s bedtime, Berry, dear, so say good-night and be off.”
“May I peek in and see if Lily is asleep?” asked Berry, and at her mother’s smiling nod the little girl ran to open the door into the little room where the negro girl slept in safety.
The Arnolds had finished breakfast the next morning before there was any sound in the adjoining chamber. Mrs. Arnold had selected some part-worn garments for the negro girl, and in a little while Lily appeared in the kitchen, a very different Lily from the ragged, frightened Lily that Berry had brought home. She was eager to help in the work of the cabin, and before the hour for lessons arrived Mrs. Arnold realized that Lily had been well trained as a house servant.
“Do not ask Lily any questions, Berry,” her mother cautioned. “Wait until she is ready to tell us her story,” and Berry, a little reluctantly, agreed, for she was eager to hear of Lily’s journey, and of her escape from slavery.