"The coffee and sandwiches ready, Ben?"
"Yassam. All on de table waitin'. De coffee gittin' cold."
"I'll bring Papa down, if I can get him to come."
"Yassam. I hopes ye bring him. He sho must be wore out."
"It's daylight," she said, "open the windows and put out the lamp."
Mary climbed the stairs again to get her father to eat. Ben drew the curtains and the full light of a beautiful spring morning flooded the room. A mocking bird was singing in the holly. A catbird cried from a rosebush, a redbird flashed and chirped from the hedge and a colt whinnied for his mother.
The old negro lowered the lamp, blew it out and began to straighten the room. A soft knock sounded on the front door.
He stopped and listened. That was queer. No guest could be coming to Arlington at dawn. Lieutenant Stuart would come on horseback and the ring of his horse's hoofs could be heard for half a mile.
He turned back to his work and the knock was repeated, this time louder.
He cautiously approached the door.