"My mission will be a dangerous one at best, and the deck of the steamer
will be no place for you, Julia."

"Very well; Christy and I will take the tug as soon as you are ready to
have us leave you."

"Am I to go on shore, father?" demanded Christy, with a look of chagrin
on his handsome face, browned by exposure to the sun on the ocean.
"I want to go with you; and I am sure I can do my share of the duty,
whatever it may be."

"You are rather young to engage in such an enterprise as that before me,
Christy," added his father, as he gazed with pride at the face and form
of his son, who had thrown back his head as though he felt the
inspiration of all the manliness in his being.

"If there is to be a war for the Union, I am a Union man, or boy, as you
like; and it would be as mean and cowardly for me to turn my back to the
enemy as it would be for you to do so, sir," replied Christy, his chest
heaving with patriotic emotion.

"I am willing you should go with me," added Captain Passford, turning
from the young man to his mother.

There was a tear in the eyes of the lady as she looked upon her son. It
was hard enough to have her husband leave her on such a mission: it was
doubly so to have Christy go with him.

"Christy might be of great service to me," said his father. "I look upon