"The promise is upon your conscience as a preacher of the Word."
"Yes, sah," almost inaudibly.
"This is it, then. You will give me the clothes you are wearing, for which I will pay you twenty dollars, and one of the horses hidden in the hill pasture."
"Fo' God!"
"You will take my horse in exchange, ride to-morrow morning, before daybreak, for Leesburg, and take the train to Washington. Have you ever been in Washington?"
"Yes, sah."
"I will give you a paper which you will show to any soldier about Washington who stops you, and he will let you pass. In the city you will find the War Department, and there leave that paper and another I will give you. The second paper you will not let any one see before you leave it at the War Department. You will there be given forty dollars. When you return you will come at night and take the horse up to the hill pasture. Will you have to account for your absence?"
"Miss Meely done lef' me go preachin' round de cyounty, sah. Miss Meely"—hesitating—"Miss Meely te'ible sot down on de Yankees, sah."
"Be careful, then. We must work in our garden."
"Sholy."