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there often over the previous year, when she and Sarah had spent several months caring for their elderly uncle, whose health was much worse than their father’s. After Sarah had left abruptly, accused by a Confederate officer of spying for the North, Jeff and Leah had spent hours talking and laughing as they cared for Uncle Silas’s farm. It was there that she had discovered Ezra Payne, who had escaped the disease-filled Confederate prison camp outside town.
    As Jeff drew near Uncle Silas’s house, he thought again of the quarrel he’d had with Leah and muttered, “She sure is stubborn, that girl is!” And he remembered it was that same stubbornness that had finally convinced him to help her rescue Ezra and get him to her family in Kentucky in the first place. Pulling up in front of the house, he leaped out, tied the team to the hitching post, took the porch steps two at a time, and knocked smartly on the door.
    It opened almost at once.
    â€œWhy, Jeff! Come in the house, boy. I didn’t know you were back.”
    â€œGood to see you again, Mr. Carter.” Jeff smiled and shook his hand. It startled him how much alike Silas and his nephew Dan were getting to look, especially now that Dan’s hair was turning gray.
    Silas was older, with a white beard and a headful of silvery hair. There was a smile on his lips as he pulled Jeff inside. “Come in, boy, and tell me what all has been going on. How’s my Kentucky family doing? I’ve been sort of concerned about you too. That’s a long haul for a young feller. Sit down there at the table and tie into some of this cornbread and beans. There’s plenty. I want to hear about how you three got away.”
    â€œWhy, I wrote you about it, Mr. Carter, as soon as I got to Kentucky.”
    â€œOh, sure, but hearing about something is better than reading about it, don’t you think?”
    â€œYes, I guess it is.” Despite his new resentment of Ezra, Jeff remembered with pride and pleasure how they had sneaked him through the lines and made it all the way to the Carters’ farm in Kentucky without a hitch.
    â€œSit down, boy,” Silas insisted, and soon Jeff was eating the sweet cornbread and smoky beans that Silas made so well, washing them down with cool buttermilk.
    Jeff was glad to see Silas again. He’d grown fond of him, and now he sat and watched Silas clean up the dishes and wipe the counter and table with a damp rag.
    â€œWell, we had quite a time of it, but we made it back.”
    â€œIt was Lucy Driscoll who told the soldiers about Ezra, wasn’t it?”
    â€œYes, sir. I sure didn’t think Lucy would do a thing like that.”
    Silas grinned suddenly. “I think she was jealous of you, Jeff.”
    â€œJealous?” Jeff’s bewildered face echoed the surprise in his voice.
    â€œWhy, sure! That little girl’s always got everything she wanted. When she saw you liked Leah best, she just purely couldn’t take it.”
    Jeff flushed and shook his head. “I dunno. Never thought of it that way.”
    â€œWell, I did. But go on with the story.”
    â€œNot much to it. I rode hard and got ahead of the patrol they sent out to catch Ezra.”
    â€œGuess you had to ride pretty hard.” Silas had once said he liked the way Jeff never boasted but just considered himself an ordinary boy who did what he had to.
    â€œSure did. Had to ride
around
the patrol. Only got there a few minutes before they did.”
    â€œIf they’d caught Ezra, he’d have been sent back to prison camp. He surely would’ve died there. Where’d you hide him?”
    â€œOh, I just told him to take my horse on ahead. He was out of sight before the patrol pulled up.”
    â€œYou saved his bacon, Jeff—and Leah’s too, if they’d found out her part in it.”
    â€œDon’t know about that, sir.”
    â€œIf they’d caught her with an escaped