Berry’s absence from home on the morning of the battle of Shiloh made Mr. and Mrs. Arnold seriously anxious. The fact that Lily had also disappeared was of some comfort, however, for they knew the colored girl would do her best to protect and shield her young mistress from any danger. The position of the Arnolds’ cabin in the remote ravine was, fortunately, out of range of the guns, and the terrible encounters between the Confederate and Union forces were all several miles beyond the ridge that sheltered the cabin. But Sunday, with the echoing sound of guns, passed slowly by to the nearly frantic parents. To venture far from the cabin was not to be considered; and, added to their anxiety for Berry, was the fear of what might have befallen Mrs. Bragg and Mollie. But at the approach of night the sound of musketry ceased, the roar of cannon died away for a time, and a heavy rain began to fall. But with darkness came a new sound: Union gunboats had come up the Tennessee River and began a steady fire upon the Confederates. Sleep was impossible, and when Monday morning came Mr. Arnold declared that he must go in search of Berry, and Mrs. Arnold determined to accompany him. But as they turned down the familiar trail, two miles from the cabin, to the brook, where Berry had met the spy, they could see the dense smoke from the guns rising in every direction; and down a near-by road a mass of Confederate soldiers in their gray uniforms dashed by.

“It is of no use to go any farther. We may be shot by stray bullets, or taken prisoners as ‘suspicious’ strangers,” said Mr. Arnold. “Possibly some friendly officer has taken charge of Berry and Lily, and when the battle ends will send them safely home. All we can do is to return to the cabin and wait!”

Mrs. Arnold sadly agreed, and they made their way home, wondering anxiously as to the course of the battle.

“If the Union army had any warning at all of the advance of the Confederates they may be able to defend the Landing,” said Mr. Arnold, as they again reached the cabin.

When Lily awakened on Sunday morning to the sound of echoing artillery, and when she discovered that Berry was not at home, she at once understood what had happened.

“Missie Berry’s at de Union camp!” she promptly decided, “an’ I’se gwine dar ter tek keer ob her,” and Lily was off like the wind. But she found it no easy matter to reach her destination.

After she had left the rough ridge where the Arnolds’ cabin stood and made her way down the ravine she was instantly in the midst of moving masses of Confederates; and it took all her alertness and caution to avoid discovery. For hours she crouched in thickets, and once even marched steadily along with a division of soldiers who were driving Union soldiers back toward the Landing; and darkness had begun to gather before the tired, frightened Lily reached the plateau above the Tennessee River, from where the thunder of guns held back the advancing Confederates.

Slowly and cautiously Lily crept along the embankment. Rain began to fall; darkness came; and the Confederates fell back; and the exhausted Lily crawled along and at last found herself near a tent.

“I reckon I’ll jes’ go in dar,” she thought, “an’ wait til’ dis rain stops,” and, making no more noise than a woodland rabbit, Lily softly crept under the swinging flap of the tent. But, quietly as she had entered, ears as sharp as her own, and eyes accustomed to shadowy woodland ways, had discovered her.

“Who’s there?” called a familiar voice; and Lily jumped to her feet and ran forward.

“My lan’! Missie Berry!” she exclaimed. “Ain’ I de lucky nigger ter cum right to dis tent! I’se bin all day a-gettin’ har!”

“Oh, Lily!” For a moment Berry clung silently to the faithful girl who had braved every danger to reach her young mistress; and then quickly told the story of her discovery of the Confederates in Shiloh woods. “And now I want to go home. We’ll start this minute!” she exclaimed eagerly.

“We cyan’t, Missie Berry! Dar’s milluns ob men a-fightin’ out dar! An’ lissen ter dat rain, Missie Berry! If we wusn’t killed by guns we’d be droun’d daid! We shu’ wu’d, Missie Berry. An’ yo’ ma and pa dey knows I’ll tek keer ob yo’,” Lily concluded, and Berry at last agreed not to attempt to start for home until the next morning. Lily curled up on the floor beside the cot where Berry lay; and, in spite of storm and the crashing sound of guns, the girls were soon fast asleep.

On Monday Lily was awake at an early hour, and left the camp to skirmish for food. It was too serious a moment in the great battle for Colonel Peabody to remember the little Yankee girl in his tent, but Lily managed to secure a quantity of hard biscuit and refilled the water jug. “We kin go home ter-night, I reckon,” she assured Berry, who was now rested and eager to leave the tent.

Early that afternoon the sound of cheers echoed along the plateau, and Berry and Lily ventured to peer from the tent. A soldier rushed past them shouting: “Beauregard’s men are retreating. The Battle of Shiloh is over!”

“Praise de Lawd!” said Lily; “an’ I hopes dis ends de noise.”

By four o’clock the last shot had been fired, and the Union generals found that in the two days’ battle 15,000 Union soldiers had been killed or taken prisoners by the enemy, while the Confederate loss was not over 10,699 men.

In spite of Berry’s pleading Lily resolutely refused to start for home until night.

“’Tain’ safe, Missie Berry! Jes’ wait!” she insisted; and Berry at last agreed.

It was six o’clock when the flap to the tent was drawn back and Colonel Peabody, his arm in a sling and a bandage about his head, stood smiling in the doorway.

“Thank heaven you are here, and safe!” he exclaimed, as Berry started toward him; and then, discovering Lily, dressed in Francis’s old clothes, added, “Where did this boy come from?”

“From my home; it’s Lily!” Berry explained. “She’s going to take me home!”

The officer looked puzzled, but asked no further question in regard to Lily; and a moment later a soldier appeared with a pitcher of hot coffee, a plate of fried eggs and bacon, and another of biscuit. He set the food on a rough table and Colonel Peabody at once drew a stool toward it. He had hardly tasted food since the beginning of the battle, but he did not forget his visitors, and Berry was told to sit beside him, while Lily was given a liberal share. They were all too hungry to talk until they had satisfied their hunger, and Colonel Peabody was the first to speak.

“Now, little Yankee girl, tell me your name, or, better still, write it down for me. You will find some paper and a pencil in that box,” and he pointed toward a wooden box at the head of the cot.

“Write your father’s name also,” he added, as Berry began to write.

“My brother Francis is a Union soldier. He’s a Corporal!” Berry proudly announced, as she handed Colonel Peabody the paper on which she had written her own name and that of her father.

“Well, I think you should be a General!” declared the officer. “So your name is Berenice Arnold!” said Colonel Peabody, and in a thoughtful tone he repeated: “Berenice Arnold, the little Yankee girl of Shiloh,” and then added: “If you had not reached us when you did with your warning of the advancing Confederates this camp would surely have been captured. General Grant will thank you himself.”

“Missie Berry, I reckons we better be startin’,” whispered Lily, and, before Berry could respond, Colonel Peabody rose to his feet and said:

“Before you go, Berenice, I must take you to the hero of the day, General William T. Sherman. His efforts led us to victory,” and resting his hand on Berry’s shoulder the wounded officer moved toward the door of the tent, with Lily close at his heels.

The Union generals were gathered in a tent near by discussing the fortunes of the day. General Rousseau, whose brigade had swept everything before it; General McCook and Crittenden, who, against tremendous odds, had held their stand at Shiloh church, and General Buell, whose arrival had given victory to the Union forces, were all gathered about General Sherman as Colonel Peabody with his two odd companions appeared in the open doorway of the tent. Very briefly he told the story of Berry’s flight through the forest on the night before the Battle of Shiloh to bring the news of the stealthy advance of the enemy, and with a gentle push sent Berry toward the black-whiskered, grave-faced General whose keen eyes softened as they rested on the slender little figure; and, as he clasped Berry’s hand and smiled down upon her, Berry wished with all her heart that there was some greater service she could do for the man who had that day won an undying fame.

Later on, when Berry attempted to repeat to her father and mother what General Sherman had said to her, she found that all she could remember was that he had called her “a brave little Yankee girl,” and, when Colonel Peabody summoned a tall young soldier to go to the outskirts of the camp with the girls, that each one of the great generals had clasped her hand and smiled upon her and repeated General Sherman’s words.

The late April twilight had begun to fade when Mr. and Mrs. Arnold from their seats on the cabin porch heard the sound of a clear whistle, three times repeated, Berry’s signal, and started to their feet to see Berry, with Lily close behind her, running toward the cabin. And when the little girl told the story of her night watch in Shiloh woods, her journey to the Union camp, and all that had so quickly followed, her mother and father listened in amazement. There was no word of blame for the girl who had been intent only on being of service to the cause for which her brother was fighting.

“We have two soldiers in the family!” her father declared proudly, as she finished the story of her adventures.

“I tole Missie Berry yo’d know I’d tek keer ob her,” said the smiling Lily, as Mrs. Arnold said to the faithful girl that she had been sure Lily had followed her young mistress.

“Len Bragg is at home,” said Mr. Arnold; “he was wounded, but not seriously, in the fight along Corinth road, and carried to the cabin. I have just returned from there, and must go down again to-morrow morning.”