After he had gone, Kate asked Uncle Randolph proudly, ``Would you take their oath?''

And the old man had given a sly and wicked laugh and said, ``Hell, yes! I think I've taken it about fifty times already!'' winking at Joel's look of shock.

Her mother wrote Kate of her grief at the death of Kate's baby and at Jonathan's decision to go with the South ``And, dear Kate,'' she wrote, ``poor Dr. Breckenridge's son Robert is now organizing a militia company to go South, to his good father's sorrow. Maj. Anderson of Fort Sumter is home and recruiting volunteers for the U.S. Army. In spite of the fact that the state legislature voted us neutral, John Hunt Morgan is openly flying the Confederate flag over his woolen factory!''

Rumor of a big battle spread like a grassfire up the valley. Accounts were garbled at the telegraph office when they sent old George down to Parkersburg for the news.

``All dey know down dere is it were at Manassas Junction and it were a big fight,'' the old man told them.

In the next few days they had cause to rejoice. It had been a big battle, and the Confederate forces had won. Jonathan and Ben were not on the lists of the dead or on that of the missing. Kate and Mrs. Tussle waited for letters anxiously. Joel went to the crest of a hill behind the house and lit an enormous victory bonfire to celebrate. When Kate hurried in alarm to tell him to put it out, she saw other dots of flames among the western Virginia hills from the few scattered fires of the faithful. They all prayed now that the North would realize that peace must come, for Virginia had defended her land victoriously.