Much of Bell's time was passed with Katy at the farmhouse, and here Lieutenant Reynolds found her, accepting readily of Uncle Ephraim's hearty invitation to remain; and spending his entire vacation there, with the exception of three days given to his family. Perfectly charmed with quaint Aunt Betsy, whom he remembered so well, he flattered and courted her almost as much as he did Bell, but did not take her with him in his long rambles over the hills, or sit with her at night alone in the parlor until the clock struck twelve--a habit which Aunt Betsy greatly disapproved, but overlooked for this once, seeing, as she said, that: "The young leftenant was none of her kin, and Isabel only a little."
Those were halcyon days which Robert passed at Silverton, but one stood out prominently before him, whether sitting by his camp-fire or plunging into the battle, and that the one when, casting aside all pride and foolish theories, Bell Cameron freely acknowledged her love for the man to whom she had been so long engaged, and paid him back the kisses she had before refused to give.
"I shall be a better soldier for this," Robert had said, as he guided her down the steep of rocks, and with her hand in his, walked slowly back to the farmhouse, which, on the morrow, he left to take again his place in the army.
There were no more furloughs for him after that, and the winter passed away, bringing the spring again, when came that battle in the Wilderness, and like a hero he fought until, becoming separated from his comrades, he fell into the enemy's hands, and two days after there sped along the telegraphic wires to New York: "Lieutenant Robert Reynolds captured the first day of the battle."
Afterward there came news that Andersonville was his destination, together with many others made prisoners that day.
"It is better than being shot, and a great deal better than being burned, as some of the poor wretches were," Juno said, trying to comfort Bell, who doubted a little her sister's word.
True, there was now the shadow of a hope that he might survive the horrors, the mere recital of which made the strongest heart shiver with dread; but the probabilities were all against it, and Bell's face grew almost as white as Helen's, while her eyes acquired that restless, watchful, anxious look which has crept into the eyes of so many sorrowing women, looking away to the southward, where the dear ones were languishing in the filthy rebel holes, unworthy the name of prison.