Xu C- :6 6 ^^■- ^ "f ' Tlin ACORN SERIES. The Red Acorn; A NOVEL By JOHN Mcelroy, AUTHOR OF "UfDIBeONTlLLK," yxa CHICAGO : HENRY A. SUMNER & COMPANY 1883. COPTRIOHT. 1883. HEXRY A. SUMNKR & CO. PREFACE. THE name given this story is that made glorious by the valor and achievements of the splendid First Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps, the cognizance of which was a crimson acorn, worn on the breasts of its gallant soldiers, and borne upon their battle flags. There are few gatherings of men into which one can go to-day without finding some one wearing, as his most cherished ornament, a red acorn, frequently wrought in gold and studded with precious stones, and which tells that its wearer is a veteran of Mill Springs, Perryville, Shiloh, Corinth, Stone River, Chicamauga, Mission Ridge, Atlanta, Jonesville, March to the Sea, and Ben- tonville. The Fourteenth Corps was the heart of the grand old Army of the Cumberland — an army that never knew defeat. Its nucleus was a few scattered regi- ments in Eastern Kentucky, in 1861, which had the good fortune to be commanded by Gen. George H. Thomas. With them he won the first real victory that blessed our arms. It grew as he grew, and under his superb leadership it was shaped and welded and tem- pered into one of the mightiest military weapons the world ever saw. With it Thomas wrung victory from 603(125 Q PREFACE. defeat on the bloody fields of Stone River and Chica- mauga ; with it he dealt the final crushing blow of the Atlanta campaign, and with it defeat was again turned to victory at Bentonville. The characters introduced into the story all belonged to or co-operated with the First Division of the Four- teenth Corps. The Corps' badge was lUr Acorn. As was the custom in the army, the divisions in each Coqis were distinguished by the color of the badges — the First's being red, the Second's white, and the Third's blue. There was a time when this explanation was hardly necessary, but now eighteen years have elapsed since the Acorn flags fluttered victoriously over the last field of battle, and a generation has grown up to which they are but a tradition •' • ^' CONTENTS. CnAPTEn I.— A Diclftrntion, . . . . Chapter II.— First SboU, .... CnAmcR III.— A Kace, . . . . . Co AFTER IV. — Di.Hjfrace, .... Cii.vPTER v.— The Llnt-8craping and iiumlHi,'i- iimkinp Union. . . . . . Chapter VI —The Awakening, CuAiTER VII. — Pomp and C'ircuin.Htancc of Glorioiw War, Chapter VIII.— The Tetlium of Camp, COAiTER IX.— On Ihe March, . . . . Chapter X.— The Mountaineer *b Hevengc, ''mapt>:r XI— Through the Mountain and the Night, MAPTER XII.— Aunt Debl)y Brill. Chapter XIII —An Apple Jack Itaid. Chaiter XIV.— In Uio iloHpital, Chapter XV. — Making Arquaintancc with Duty, Chapter XVI.— The Ambuscade, Chapter XVII — Alspaugh on a IJcd of Pain,- Chapter XVIII.— Secret Service, Chapter XIX— The Battle of Stone Wve& 0-2 71 W 02 112 1'J6 111 100 17.-> 184 2()4 230 2r)2 27U Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2010 witii funding from University of Nortii Carolina at Chapel Hi http://www.archive.org/details/redacornnovelsOOmcel THE RED ACORN. CHAPTER I. A DECLARATION. ' O, what U •© rare a* a day In June? Then, If ever, come perfect dayt; Then Heaven tries the Earth If It be In une, And over It softly her warm ear lays." — LOWULL. /~\F all human teachers they were the grandest who Vy gave us the New Testament, and made it a tex^ book for Man in every age. Transcendent benefac- tors of the race, they opened in it a never-failing well-spring of the sweet waters of Consolation and Hope, which have flowed over, fertilized, and made blossom as a rose the twenty-century wide desert of the ills of human existence. But they were not poets, as most of the authors of the Old Testament were. They were too much in earnest in their great work of carrying the glad evangel of Redemption to all the earth — they so burned with eagerness to pour their joyful tidings into every ear, that they recked little of the form in which the saving intelligence was con- veyed. Had they been poets would they have conceived Heaven as a place with foundations of jasper, sap- 10 THE RED ACORN. phires and emeralds, gales of pearl, and streets of burnished gold that shone like glass ? Never. That showed them to he practical men, of a Semi- tic cast of mind, who addressed hearers that agreed with them in regarding gold and precious stones as the finest things of which the heart could dream. Had they been such lovers of God's handiwork in Nature as the Greek religious teachers — who were also poets — they would have painted us a Heaven vaulted by the soft blue sky of early Summer, per fumed by the breath of opening flowers, and made musical by the sweet songs of birds in the tirst rapture of finding their young mates. In other words they would have given us a picture of earth on a perfect June day. On the afternoon of such a day as tliis Kachel Bond sat i^enoath an apple-tree at the crest of a mod- erate hill, and looked dreamily away to where, beyond the villajre of Sardis at the foot of the hill, the Miami River marked the beautiful valley like a silver ribbon carelessly flung upon a web of green velvet. Rather she seemed to be looking there, for the light that usually shone outward in those luminous eyes was turned inward. The little volume of poems had dropped unheeded from the white hand. It had done its office : the passion of its lines had keyed her thoughts to a harmony that suffused her whole being, until all seemed as naturally a part of the glorious day as the fleecy clouds in the sapphire sky, the cheer- ful hum of the bees, and the apple-blossoms' luxuri- ous scent. Her love — and, quite as much, her girlish ambi- A DECLARATION. 11 tion — had been crowned with violets and bays some weeks before, when the fever-heat of patriotism seemed to bring another passion in Harry Glen's bosom to the eruptive point, and there came the long- waited-for avowal of his love, which was made on the evening before his company departed to respond to the call for troops which followed the fall of Fort Sumter. Does it seem harsh to say that she had sought to bring about this detioiU')iient f Kather, it seems that iu'r etforts were commendable. She was a young woman of marriageable age. She believed that her mission in life was marriage to some man who would make her a good husband, and whom she would in turn love, honor, and strive to make happy. Harry (lien's family was the ecpial of her's in social station, and a little above it in wealth. To this he added ed- ucational and personal advantages that made him the most desirable match in Sardis. Starting with the premises given above, her first conclusion was the natural one that she should marry the best man avail- able, and the ne.\f that that man was Harry Glen. Her ctibrts had been bounded by the strictest code of maidenly ethics, and so artistically developed that the only persons who penetrated their skillful vailing, and detected her a.s a ''designing creature," were two or three maiden friends, whose maneuvers toward the same objective were brought to naught by her suc- cess. It must be admitted that refining casuists may find room for censure in this making Ambition the advance guard to spy out the ground that Love is to occupy. 12 THE RED ACORN. But, after all, is there not a great deal of mistake about the way that true love begins ? If we had the data before us we should be pained by the enlighten- ment that, in the vast majority of cases the regard of young people for each other is tixed in the first in. stance l)v motives that will bear quite as little scrutiny as Miss Rachel Bond's. "We can afford to be careless how the germ of love is planted. The main thing is how it is watered and tended, and brought to a lasting and beautiful growth. Kachel's ambition gratified, there had been a steady rise toward tlood in the tide of her affections. She was not long in growing to love Harry with all the intensity of a really ardent nature. After the meeting at which Harry had signed tlie recruiting roll, he had taken lier home up the long, sloping hill, through moonlight as st)ft, as inspiring, as glorifying as that whidi had melted even the frosty Goddess of Maidenhood, so that she stooped from her heavenly unapproachableness, and kissed the hand some Endymion as he slept. Though little and that connnonplace was said a.s they walked, sublh^ womanly instinct prepared Ra- ehers mind for what was coming, and her grasp upon Harry's arm assumed a new feeling that hurried him on to the crisis. They stopped beneath the old apple-tree, at the crest of the hill, and in front of the house. Its gnarled and twisted limbs had been but freshly clothed in a suit of fragi-ant gi-een leaves. The ruddy bonfires, lighted for the war-meeting, still burned in the village below. The hum of sup- A DECIARATION. 13 j)lementary speeches to the excited crowds that still lingered about came to their ears, mingled with cheers from throats rapidly growing hoarse, and the throb and wail of fife and drum. Then, uplifted on the voices of hundreds who sang it as only men, and men swayed b^- powerful emotions can, rose the ever- glorious "Star-Spangled Banner," loftiest and most inspiring of national hymns. Through its long, force- ful measures, which have the sweep and ring of marching battalions, swung the singei*s, with a pas' .«>ionate earnt'stness that made every note and word glow with meaning. The swelling ptean told of the heroism and sacrifice with which the fiMindations of the Nation were laid, of the glory to which the land had risen, and then its mood changing to one of dirc- ness and wrath, it foretold the just punishment of those who broke the peace of a happy land. The mood of the Sardis people was that patriotic exaltation which reigned in every city and village of the Noi1h on that memorable night of April, ISeU But Rachel and Harry had left far behind them this passion of the multitude, which had set their own to throbbing, even as the roar of a cannon will waken the vibrations of haip-strings. Around where they stood was the peace of the night and sleep. The per- hmie of violets and hyacinths, and of myriads of opening buds seemed shed by the moon with her silvery rays through the soft, dewy air; a few noc- turnal insects droned hither and thither, and " drowsy tinklings 'ulled the distant folds." As their steps were arrested Rachel released her grasp from Harry's arm, but he caught her hand 14 THE RED ACORN. before it fell to her side, and held it fast. She turned her face frankly toward him, and he looked down with anxious eyes upon the broad white forehead, framed in silken black hair, upon great eyes, flaming with a meaning that he feared to interpret, upon the eloquent lines about the mobile, sensitive mouth, all now lifted into almost supernatural beauty by the moonlight's spiritualizing magic. What he said he could never afterward recall. His first memory was that of a pause in his speech, when he saw the ripe, red lips turned toward him with a gesture of the proud head that was both an assent and invitation. The kiss that he pressed there thrilled him with the intoxication of unexpectedly re- warded love, and Riichel with the gladness of tri- umph. What they afterward said was as incoherent as the conversations of those rapturous moments ever are. "You know we leave in the morning?" he said, when at last it became necessary for him to go. " Yes," she answered calmly. "And perhaps it is better that it should be so — that we be apart for a little while to consider this new-found happiness and understand it. I shall be sustained with the thought that in giving you to the country I have given more than any one else. I know that you wnll do some- thing that will make me still prouder of you, and my presentiments, which never fail me, assure me that you will return to me safely." His face showed a little disappointment with the A DECLARATION. 15 She reached above her head, and breaking off a bud handed it to him, saying in the words of Juliet : "Sweet, good-night: This bud of love, by Summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet." He kissed the bud, and put it in his bosom ; kissed her again passionately, and descended the hill to pre- pare for his departure in the morning. She was with the rest of the village at the depot to bid the company good-bye, and was amazed to find how far the process of developing the bud into the flower had gone on in her heart since parting with her lover. Her previous partiality and admiration for him appeared now very tame and colorless, beside the emotions that stirred her at the sight of him marching with erect grace at the head of his company. But while all about her were tears and sobs, and modest girls revealing unsuspected attachments in the agitation of parting, her eyes were undimmed. She was proud and serene, a heightening of the color in her cheeks being the only 5;ign of unusual feeling. Harry came to her for a moment, held her hand tightly in his, took the bud from his bosom, touched it significantly with his lips, and sprang upon the train which was beginning to move away. The days that followed were halcyon for her. While the other women of Sardis, whose loved ones were gone, were bewailing the dangers they would encounter, her proud spirit only contemplated the chances that Harry would have for winning fame. 16 THE RED ACORN. Battles meant bright laurels for him, in which she would have a rightful share. Her mental food became the poetry of love, chiv- alry and glorious war. The lyric had a vivid per- sonal interest. Tales of romantic daring and achieve- ment were suggestions of possibilities in Harry's career. Her waking hours were mainly spent, book in hand, under the old apple-tree that daily grew dearer to her. The exalted mood in which we found her was broken in upon by the sound of some one shutting the gate below very emphatically. Looking down she saw her father approaching with such visible signs in face and demeanor of strong excitement, that she arose and went to him. " Why, father, what can be the matter ? " she said, stopping in front of him, with the open book pressed to her breast. "Matter enough, I'm afraid, Rachel. There's been a battle near a place called Rich Mountain, in Western Virginia, and Harry Glen's " "O, father,"" she said, growing very white, "Har- ry's killed." " No ; not killed." The old man's lip curled with scorn. " It's worse. He seems to've suddenly dis- covered he wan't prepared to die ; he didn't want to rush all at once into the presence of his Maker. Mebbe he didn't think it'd be good manners. You know he was alwa3'8 stronger on etikwet than any- thing else. In short, he's showed the white feather. A dozen or more letters have come from the boys telling all about it, and the town's talking of nothing A DECLARATION. 17 else. There's one of the letters. It's from Jake Alspaugh, who quit working for me to enlist. Read it for yourself. " The old gentleman threw the letter upon the grass, and strode on angrily into the house. Rachel smoothed out the crumpled sheet, and read with a growing sickness at the heart: Mr. Bond— Deer Sur: i taik my pen in Imnd to Ictt you no that with the exception of a occashunal tuch of roomaticks. an boonions all over my fete from hard marchin, ime all rite, an i hope you ar injoiu the saim blessm. Weve jest h.id an awful big fite. and the way we warmed it to the secshers jest beat the jews, i doant expect they ve stopt runnin yit. All the Sardis boys done bully except Lieutenant Harry Glen. The smell of burnt powder seamed to onsettle his narves. He tuk powerful sick all at wunst. jest as the trail was gitlin rather fresh, and he lay giouuin wen the rest of the com- pany marched oflf into the fite. He doant And the klime-it here as healthy as it is in Sardis. i 'stinguished myself and have bin promoted, and ive got a Rebel gun for you with a bore big enuff to put a walnut in, and it'll jest nock your wiiole darned shoulder off every time you shoot it. No more yours til deth send me some flnecut tobacker for heavens sake. Jacob Alspaugh. Rachel tore the letter into a thousand fragments, and flung the volume of poems into the ditch below. She hastened to her room, and no one saw her again until the next morning, when she came down dressed in somber black, her face pale, and her colorless lips tightly compressed. 18 THE RED ACORN. CHAPTER II FIRST SHOTS. " Cowardt fe»r lo dtc; bat roart4r« Moat, R Ihtr (hftn lire In tnuff. will be put out." — SiB Waltkb IlALiioa. ox "Tub Sxrrr or a Cajtdlb." ALL niilitni y courage of any value is the offspring of pride and will. The existence of what is called " natural couraire " may well be ilouhted. What is frequently mistaken for it is either perfect self-com- mand, or a stolid indifference, arising from dull lirained inability to comprehend what really is danger. The first instincts of man teach him to shun all sources of harm, and if his senses are sufficiently acute to perceive dan;xwer of pride and will — pride to aspire to the accomplishment of certain tilings, even though risk attend, ami will to carry out those aspirations. Harry Glen was apparently not deficient in either pride or will. The close observer, however, seemed to see as his ma.stering sentiment a certiiin sterile self- ishness, not uncommon among the youths of his train- ing and position in the slow-living, hum-drum country towns of Ohio. The only son of a weakly-fondling mother and a father too earnestly treading the narrow path of early diligences and small savings by which :i riBHT SHOTS. 19 man becomes the richest in his villafre, to pay any attention to him, Harry grew up a self-indulgent, sclf- suflScient boy. His course at the seminary and college naturally developed this into a snobbish assumption that he was of tiner clay than the conunonally, and in some way selected by fortune for her finer displays and luxurious purposes. I have termed this a *' sterile selfishness," to distinguish it from that grand egoism which in large minds is fruitful of high accomplish- ments and great deeds, and to denote a force which, in the sons of the average "rich" men of the county seats, is apt to exju-nd itself in satisfaction at having finer clothes and fjLster hoi-ses and plcasanter homes, than the average — in a pride of white hands and a 8Coni of drudgery. When Harry signed his name upon the recruiting roll — largely impellep;morh's face grew blacker. ''The business of paying pi'oper respect to your officers/' "It hasn't occurred to me that I am neglecting anything in that line," said Kent, languidly, shifting over to recline upon his left elbow, and with his right hand gathering up a little gravel to flip at the toad ; "but maybe you are better acquainted with our l)usi- ness than we are." Abe contributed to the dialogue a scornful laugh, indicative of a most heartless disbelief in his superior officer's superior intellectuality. The dark cloud burst in storm: "Don't you know," said Alspaugh, angry in every fiber, " that the reggerlations say that 'when an enlisted man sees an officei- ai)pr()ach, he will rise and saloot, and remain standin' and gazin' in a respectful manner until the officer passes tive paces beyond him? ' Say, don't you know that t " Kent Edw\ards flipped a bit of gravel with sucii good aim that it struck the toad fairly on the head, who l)linked his bright eyes in surprise, and hopped back to his covert. "I am really glad," said he, " to know that you have learned HoniPthing of the regula- tions. Now, don't say another word about it until I run down to the company quarters and catch a fellow for a bet, who wants to put up money that you can never learn a single sentence of them. Don't say another word, and you can stand in with me on the bet." "Had your head measured since you got this idea into it ? " asked Abe Bolton, with well-assumed interest. POSIP AND CIRCUMSTANCE OF GLORIOUS WAR. ^5 '' If he did, he had to use a surveyor's chain," suggested Kent, flipping another small pebble in the direction of the toad's retreat. Alspaugh hud grown so great upon the liberal feed of the meat of flattery, that he could hardly make himself believe he had heard aright, and that these men did not care a tig for himself oi' his authority. Then recovering confidence in the fidelity of his ears, it seemed to him that such conduct was aggravated mutiu\', which military discipline demanded should receive condign punishment on the spot. Had he any confidence in his ability to use the doughty weapon at his side, he would not have resisted the strong temp- tation to draw his sword and make an example then and there of the contemners of his power and magnifi- cence. But the culprits had shown such an aptitude in the use of arms as to inspire his wholesome respect, and he was very far from sure that they might not make a display of his broadsword an occasion for heaping fresh ridicule upon him. An opportune remembrance came to his aid : ''If it wasn't for the strict orders we oflficers got yesterday not to allow ourselves to be provoked under any circumstances into striking our men, I'd learn you fellers mighty quick not to insult your superior oflScers. I'd bring you to time, I can tell you. But I'll settle with you yit. I'll have you in the guard house on bread and water in short meter, and then I'll learn you to be respectful and obedient." " He means ' teach,' instead of ' learn,' " said Kent, apologetically, to Abe. "It's just awful to have a man, wearing shoulder-straps, abuse English gram- 76 THE RED ACORN. mar in that way. What's grammar done to hini to deserve such treatment ? He hasn't even a speaking acquaintance with it." "I 'spose it's because gi'ammar can't hit back. That's the kind he always picks on," answered Abe. "You'll pay for this," shouted Alspaugh, striding off after the Sergeant of the Guard. At that moment a little drummer appeared by the flagstaflf, and beat a livel}^ rataplan. "That's for dress-parade," said Kent Edwards, rising. "We'd better skip right over to quarters and fall in." "Wish their dress-parades were in the brimstone flames,'' growled Abe Bolton, as he rose to accom- pany his comrade. " All they're for is to stand up as a background, to show oflf a lot of spruce young offi- cers dressed in ftmcy rigs " " Well," said Kent, lightly, as the}^ walked along, "I kind of like that ; don't you ? We make pictur- esque backgrounds, don't we ? you and I, especially ; you, the soft, tender, lithe and willowy ; and I, the frowning, rugged and adamantine, so to speak. I think the background business is our best hold." He laughed heartily at his own sarcasm, but Abe was not to be moved by such frivolity, and answered glumly : "O, yes; laugh about it, if you choose. That's your wa}' : giggle over everything. But when I play l)ackground, I want it to be with something worth while in the foreground. I don't hanker after making myself a foil to show off such fellers as our officers are, to good advantajje." POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE OF GLORIOUS WAR. 77 "That don't bother me any more than it does a mountain to serve as a backgromid for a nanny goat and a pair of sore-eyed mules ! " " Yes, but the mountain sometimes has an oppor- tunity to drop an avalanche on 'em. " At this point of the discussion they arrived at the company grounds, and had scarcely time to snatch up their guns and don their belts before the company moved out to take its place in the regimental line. The occasion of Lieutenant Alspaugh's elaborate personal ornamentation now manifested itself By reason of Captain Bennett's absence, he was in com- mand of the company, and was about to make his first appearance on parade in that capacity. Two or three young women, of the hollyhock order of beauty, whom he was very anxious to impress, had been brought to camp, to witness his apotheosis into a com- manding officer. The moment, however, that he placed himself at the head of the company and drew sword, the chill breath of distrust sent the mercury of his self-con- fidence down to zero. It looked so easy to command a company when some one else was doing it ; it was hard when he tried it himself All the imps of confu- sion held high revel in his mind when he attempted to give the orders which he had conned until he sup- posed he had them "dead-letter perfect." He felt his usually-unfailing assurance shrivel up under the gaze of hundreds of mercilessly critical eyes. He managed to stammer out : " Attention^ company ! forward^ file right, MARCH ! " 78 THE RED ACORN. But as the company began to execute the order, it seemed to be going just the opposite to what he had commanded, and he called out excitedly : " Not that way ! Not that way ! I said 'file right,' and you're going left." "We are filing right," answered some in the com- pany. ''You're turned around; that's what's the matter with you.'' So it was. He had forgotten that when standing facing the men, he must give them orders in reverse from what the movement appeared to him. This in- creased his confusion, until all his drill knowledge seemed gone from him. The sight of his young lady friends, clad in masses of primary colors, stimulated him to a strong efibrt to recover his audacity, and bracing himself up, he began calling out the guide and step, with a nois}' confidence that made him heard all over the parade ground : "Left! left! left! Hep! hep! hep! Cast them head and eyes to the right ! " Trouble loomed up mountainously as he approached the line. Putting a company into its place on parade is one of the crucial tests of tactical proficienc3\ To march a company to exactly the right spot, with every man keeping his proper distance from his file-leader — " twentj^-eight inches from back to breast, "clear down the column, so that when the order "front" is given, every one turns, as if on a pivot, and touches elbows with those on each side of him, in a straight, firm wall of men, without an}' shambling "closing up," or "side-stepping" to the right or left, — to do all this at word of command, looks very simple and easy to the POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE OF GLORIOUS WAR. 79 iioii-niilitaiy spectator, as many other very difficult things look simple and easy to the inexperienced. But really it is only possible to a thoroughly drilled company, held well in hand by a competent com- mander. It is something that, if done well, is simply done well, but if not done well, is very bad. It is like an egg that is either good or utterly worthless. Alspaugh seemed fated to exhaust the category of possible mistakes. Coming on the ground late he found that a gap had been left in the line for his company which was only barely sufficient to receive it when it was aligned and compactly " dressed.'' In his nervousness he halted the company before it had reached the right of the gap by ten paces, and so left about one-quai'ter of the company lapping over on the one to his left. Even this was done with an unsightly jumble. His confusion as to the reversal of right and left still abode with him. He com- manded " right face,'' instead of " front," and was amazed to see the whole one hundred well-drilled men whirl their backs around to the regiment and the commanding officer. A laugh rippled down the ranks of the other companies ; even the spectators smiled, and something sounded like swearing by the Adjutant and Sergeant-Major. Alspaugh lifted his plumed hat, and wiped the beaded perspiration from his brow with the back of one of the yellow gauntlets. " Order an ' about face,' " whispered the Orderly- Sergeant, whose face was burning with shame at the awkward position in which the company found itself. 80 THE RED ACORN. ^^ About — FACE ! " gasped Alspaugh. The men turned on their heels. '• Side-step to the right," whispered the Orderly. '' Side-step to the right," repeated Alspaugh, me- chanically. The men took short side-steps, and following the orders which Alspaugh repeated from the whispered suggestions of the Orderly, the company came clum- sily forward into its place, " dressed," and "opened ranks to the rear." When at the command of '' pa- rade-rest," Alspaugh dropped his saber's point to the ground, he did it with the crushed feeling of a strut- ting cock which has been flung into the pond and emerges with dripping feathers. He raised his iioart in sincere thanksgiving that he was at last through, for there was nothing more for him to do during the parade, except to stand still, and at its conclusion the Orderly would have to march the company back to its quarters. But his woes had still another chapter. The In- spector-General had come to camp to inspect the reg- iment, and he was on the ground. Forty years of service in the regular army, with promotion averaging one grade every ten years, making him an old man and a grandfather before he was a Lieutenant-Colonel, had so surcharged Col. Murbank's nature with bitterness as to make even the very air in his vicinity seem roughly astringent. The wicked young Lieutenants who served with him on the Plains used to say that his bark was worse than his bite, because no reasonable bite could ever be so bad as his bark. They even suggested calling POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE OF GLORIOUS WAR. 81 him " Peruvian Bark," because a visit to his quarters was worse than a strong dose of quinia. '' Yeth, thafth good," said the lisping wit of the crowd. ^'Evely bite ith a bit, ain't it? And the wortht mutht be a bitter, ath he ith." The Colonel believed that the whole duty of man consisted in loving the army regulations, and in keep- ing their commandments. The best part of all virtue was to observe them to the letter ; the most abhor- rent form of vice, to violate or disregard even their minor precepts. His feelings were continually lacerated by contact with volunteers, who cared next to nothing for the form of war-making, but everything for its spirit, and the martinet heart within him was bruised and sore when he came upon the ground to inspect the regiment. Alspaugh's blundering in bringing the company into line awakened this ire from a passivity to ac- tivity. "I'll have that dunderhead's shoulder-straps off inside of a fortnight," he muttered between his teeth. The unhappy Lieutenant's inability to even stand properly during the parade, or repeat an order in- tensified his rage. When the parade was dismissed the officers, as usual, sheathed their swords, and forming a line with the Adjutant in the center, marched forward to the commanding and inspecting officers, and saluted. Then the wrath of the old In- spector became vocable. "What in God's name," he roared, fixing his glance F 82 THE RED ACORN. upon Alspaugh so unmistakably that even the latter's rainbow-clad girls, who had crowded up closely, could not make a mistake as to the victim of the ex- pletives. " What in God's name, sir," repeated the old fellow with purpling face, ''do you mean by bringing your company on to the ground in that ab- surd way, sir? Did you think, sir, that it was a hod of brick — with which I have no doubt you are most familiar — that you could dump down any place and any how, sir ? Such misconduct is simplj' disgrace- ful, sir, I'd have you know. Simply disgraceful, sir." He paused for breath, but Alspaugh had no word of defense to offer. "And what do you mean, sir," resumed the In- spector, after inflating his lungs for another gust, "what in the name of all the piebald circus clowns that ever jiggered around on sawdust, do 3'ou mean by coming on parade dressed like the ringmaster of a traveling monkey-show, sir? Haven't you any more idea of the honor of wearing a United States sword — the noblest weapon on earth, sir — than to make yourself look like the drum-major of a band of nigger minstrels, sir. Yes, sir, the drum-major of a band of nigger minsti*els, sir ! A United States officer ought to be ashamed to make a damned har- lequin of himself, sir. I'd have you to understand that most distinctly, sir." The Inspector's stock of breath, alas, was not so ample as in the far-off" days when his sturdy shoulders bore the modest single-bar, instead of the proud spread eagle of the present. Even hai it been, the POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE OF GLORIOUS WAR. 83 explosive energy of his speech would have speedily exhausted it. Compelled to stop to pump in a fresh supply, the Colonel of the regiment took advantage of the pause to whisj^er in his ear : "Don't be too rough on him, please. He's a good man but green. Promoted from the ranks for cour- age in action. First appearance on parade. He'll do better if given a chance." The Inspector's anger was mollified. Addressing himself to all the officers, he continued in a milder tone : "Gentlemen, you seem to be making progress in acquiring a knowledge of your duties, though you have a world of things yet to learn. I shall say so in my report to the General. You can go to your quar- ters." The line of officers dissolved, and the spectators began to melt away. Alspaugh's assurance rose buoyantly the moment that the pressure was removed. He raised his eyes from the ground, and looked for the young ladies. They had turned their backs and were leaving the ground. He hastened after them, fabricating as he walked an explanation, based on personal jealousy, of the Inspector's treatment of him. He was within a step of overtaking them when he heard one say, with toss of flaunting ribbons, and hoidenish giggle : " Did you ever see any-\)0(\.y wilt as Alspaugh did when old Bite-Your-Head-Off-In-a-Minute was jawing him ? It was so awfully /«^w;iy that I just thought I should DEE." The sentence ended with the picturesque rapid 84 THE RED ACORN. crescendo employed by maidens of her tyj^e in de- scribing a convulsive experience. ''Just didn't he," joined in another. "I never saw flwy-thing so funny in all my horn days. I was afraid to look at either one of ymt ; I knew if I did I would hnrd right out laughing. I couldn't \v. heJj»>i/ it — I know I coiddny. if I'd 'a knowed I'd 'a die// the next rnimtte.'''' ''Tliis would seem to be a pretty good time to drop the fellow," added the third girl, reflectively. Alspaugh turned and went in another direction. At the 9 o'clock roll-call he informed the company that the Inspector was well pleased with its appear- ance on parade. THE TEDrUM OF CAMP. 86 CHAPTER Vm. THE TEDIUM OF CAMP. And you, (?life, and in the reduction of one's cherished individuality to the dead-level of a passive, obedient, will-less private soldier. " I do wish the regiment would get orders to move I " said almost hourly each one of a half-million impatient youths fretting in Camps of Instruction through the long Summer of ISGl. " I do wish the regiment would get orders to move I " said Harry Glen angi'ily one evening, on coming into the Surgeon's tent to have his blistered hands dressed. He had been on fatigue duty during the day, and the Fatigue-Squad had had an obstinate struggle with an old oak stump, which disfigured the parade-ground, and resisted removal like an Irish ten- ant. " 1 am willing — yes, I can say I am anxious, even — to go into battle," he continued, while Dr. Paul_ Denslow laid plasters of simple cerate on the abraded THE TEDIUM OF CAMP. 87 palms, and then swathed them in bandages. "Any- thing is preferable to this chopping tough stumps with a dull ax, and drilling six hours a day while the thermometer hangs around the nineties." "I admit that there are things which would seem pleasanter to a young man of your temperament and previous habits," said the Surgeon, kindly. "Shift over into that arm-stool, wdiich 3'ou will find easier, and rest a little while. Julius, bring in that box of cigars." WTiile Julius, who resembled his illustrious name- sake as little in celerity of movement as he did in complexion, was coming, the Surgeon prepared a paper, which he presented to Harry, saying : "There, that'll keep you off duty to-morrow. After that, we'll see what can be done." Julius arrived with the cigars as tardily as if he had had to cross a Rubicon in the back room. Two were lighted, and the Surgeon settled himself for a chat. "Plave 3'ou become tired of soldier-life ?"' asked he, studying Harry's face for the effect of the question. "I can not say that I have become tired of it," said Harry, frankly, "because I must admit that I never had the slightest inclination to it. I had less fancy for becoming a soldier than for any other hon- orable pursuit that you could mention," "Then you only joined the army — " "From a sense of duty merely," said Harry, knocking the ashes from his cigar. ' ' And the physical and other discomforts now be- gin to weigh nearly as much as that sense of duty ? " 88 THE RED ACORN. " Not at all. It only seems to iiic that there are more of them than are absolutely essential to the per- formance of that duty. I want to be of service to the country, but I would prefer that that service be not made unnecessarily onerous." ''Quite natural ; quite natural." "For example, how have tlu- fatigues and pains of ni}' afternoon's chojiping contributed a particle to- ward the suppression of the rebellion I What have my blistered hands to do with the hurts of actual con- flict ? " "Let us admit that the connection is somewhat obscure," said Doctor Denslow, philo.sophically. " It is easier for you, than for me, to view the matter calmly. Your h;mds are imhurt. / am the galled jade whose withers are wrung." "Body and spirit both brui-sed ? " said the Sur- geon, half reflectively. Harry colored. "Yes," he said, rather defiantly. "In addition to desiring to serve my country, I want to vindicate my manhood from some aspersions which have been cast upon it." "Quite a fair showing of motives. Better, per- haps, than usual, when a careful weighing of the rehitive proportions of self-esteem, self-interest and higher impulses is made." " I am free to say that the discouragements I have met with are very difl'erent. and perhaps much greater than I contemplated. Nor can I bring myself to be- lieve that they are necessary. I am trying to be entirely willing to peril life and limb on the field of battle, but instead of placing me where I can do this. THE TEDIUM OF CAMP. 89 and allowing me to concentrate all my energies upon that object, I am kept for months chafing under the petty tyrannies of a bullying officer, and deprived of most of the comforts that I have heretofore regarded as necessary to my existence. What good can be ac- comphshed by diverting forces which should be devoted to the main struggle into this ignoble channel ? That's what puzzles and irritates me." " It seems to be one of the inseparable conditions of the higher forms of achievement that they require vastly more preparation for them than the labor of doing them.''' ''That's no doubt very philosophical, but it's not satisfactory, for all that." " My dear boy, learn this grand truth now : That philosophy is never satisfactory ; it is only mitigatory. It consists mainly in saying with many fine words : 'What can't be cured must be endured.' " ''I presume that is so. I wish, though, that by the mere saying so, I could make the endurance easier." " I can make your lot in the service easier." " Indeed ! how so?" "By having you appointed my Hospital Steward. I have not secured one yet, and the man who is acting as such is so intemperate that I feel a fresh sense of escape with every day that passes without his mistak- ing the oxalic acid for Epsom salts, to the destruction of some earnest but constipated young patriot's whole digestive viscera. "If you accept this position," continued the Sur- geon, flinging away his refractory cigar in disgust, 4* 90 Tin: iu:d acokn. and rising to get a fresh one, "you will have the best rank and pay of any non-commissioned officer in the regiment ; better, indeed, than that of a Second Lieutenant. You will have your quarters here with me, and be compelled to associate with no one but me, thus reducing your disagreeable companions at a single stiY)ke, to one. And you will escape finally fiom all subserviency to Lieutenant Alspaugh, or in- deed to any other officer in the regiment, except your humble servant. As to food, you will mess with me." '"Those are certainly very strong inducements,'" said Harry, meditating upon the delightfulness of relief from the myriad of rasping little annoyances which rendered every day of camp-life an infliction "Yes, and still farther, ycm will never need to go under fire, or expose yourself to danger of any kind, unless you choose to.'' Harry's face crimsoned to the hue of the westeni sky where the sun was just going down. He started to answer hotly, but an understanding of the Sur- geon's evident kindness and sincerity interposed to deter him. He knew there was no shaft of sarcasm hidden below this plain speech, and after a moment's consideration he replied : " I am very grateful, I assure you, for your kind- ness in this matter. I am strongly tempted to accept your offer, but there are still stronger reasons why I should decline it." " ^lay I ask y(nn- reasons ? " " My reasons for not accepting the appointment ? " " Yes, the reasons which impel you to prefer a THE TEDIUM OF CAMP. 91 dinner of bitter herbs, under Mr. Alspaugh's usually soiled thumb, to a stalled ox and my profitable soci- ety," said the Surgeon, gayly. Harry hesitated a moment, and then decided U speak frankly. "Yes," he said, "your kindness gives 3^)u the right to know. To not tell you would show a lack of gratitude. I made a painful blunder before in not staying unflinchingly with my company. The more I think of it, the more I regret it, and the more I am decided not to repeat it, but al)ide with my com- rades and share their fate in all things. I feel that I no longer have a choice in the matter ; I must do it. But tiiere goes the drum for roll-call. I must go. Good evening, and very many thanks." "The young fellow's no callow milksop, after all," said Surgeon Denslow, as his eyes followed Harry's retreating form. " His gristle is hardening into some- thing like his stern old father's backbone." 92 THE RED A(X)RN. CHAPTER IX. ON THE MARCH. • He smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the Captalna and the ihoutlng.' — Job. T HE wearv wooks in Ciimp of Inslnution ended witli the Suniincr. September liad eonie, and Nature was lian^jfing out crimson hattle-tlags every- wliere — on tlie swayinor poj)py and the heavy-odored freranium. The sumach and the sassafras wore crim- son siirnals of defiance, and tl)e maples blazed with the iraudy red, yellow and oranire of warlike pomp. The reirimenl made its first step on Kentuck}' soil with a little bit of pardonable ostentation. Every one looked upon it as the real beginning of its military ( areer. When the transport was securely tied up at the wharf, the Colonel mounted his horse, drew his sword, placed himself at the head of the regiment, and gave the conunand '' Forward." Eleven hundred superb young fellows, marching four abreast, with bayonets fixed, and muskets at ''right shoulder shift,'' strode up the bank after him and went into line of battle at the top, where he made a short soldierly speech, the drums rolled, the colors dipped, the men cheered, and the band played "Star-spangled Ban- ner" and "Dixie.'' Three years later the two hundred survivors of this number returning from their " Veteran furlough," ON THE MARCH. 93 without a band and with their tattered colore carefully cased, came off a transport at the same place, without uttering a word other than a little grumbling at the trouble of disposing of some baggage, marched swift- ly and silently u}) the bank, and disappeared before any one fairly realized that they were there. So much had Time and War taught them. '' Now our work may be said to be fairly begun," said the Colonel, turning from the contemjilation of his regiment, and scanning anxiously the tops of the distant line of encircling hills, as if he expected to see there signs of the Rebels in strong force. All the rest imitated his example, and studied the horizon solicitously. "And I expect we shall have plenty of it ! " continued the Colonel. " No doubt of that," answered the Major. ''They say the Rebels are filling Kentucky with troops, and going to fight for every foot of the Old Dark and Bloody Ground. I think we will have to earn all we get of it." "To-day's papers report," joined in Surgeon Dens- low, "that General Sherman says it will take two hundred thousand troops to redeem Kentucky." "Yes," broke in the Colonel testily, "and the same papers agree in pronouncing Sherman crazy. But no matter how many or how few it takes. That's none of our affair. We've got eleven hundred good men in ranks, and we're going to do all that eleven hundred good men can do. God Almighty and Abe Lincoln have got to take care of the rest." It will be seen that the Colonel was a very prac- tical soldier. 94 THE RED ACORN. " First thing we know, the Colonel will be trying to make us 'leven hundred clean out 'leven thousand Rebs," gi'owled Abe Bolton. "Suppose the Colonel should imagine himself an- other Leonidas, and us his Spartan band, and want us to die around him, and start another ThermopyU^ down here in the mountains, some phice,"" suggested Kent Edwards, "you would cheerfully pass in your checks along with the rest, so as to make the thing an entire success, wouldn't you ( '' "The day I'm sent below, I'll take a pile of Rebs along to keep me company," answered Abe, surlily. Glen, standing in the rear of his company in his place as file-closer, listened to these Avords, and saw in the dim distance and on the darkling bights the throngs of fierce enemies and avalanches of impend- ing dangers as are likely to oppress the imagination of a young soldier at such unfiivorable moments. The conflict and carnage seemed so imminent that he half expected it to begin that very night, and he stiffened his sinews for the shock. Lieutenant Alspaugh also heard, studied over the unwelcome possibilities shrouded in the gathering gloom of the distance, and regretted that he had not, before crossing the Ohio, called the Surgeon's atten- tion to some premonitory symptoms of rheumatism, which he felt he might desire to develop into an acute attack in the event of danger assuming an un- pleasant proximity. But as no Rebels appeared on the sweeping semi- circle of hills that shut in Covington on the south, he concluded to hold his disability in abeyance, by a , ON THE MARCH. 95 strong effort of the will, until the regiment had pen- etrated farther into the enemy's country. For days the regiment marched steadily on through the wonderfully lovely Blue Grass Region, toward the interior of the State, without coming into the neighborhood of any organized body of the Rebels. Glen's first tremors upon crossing the Ohio sub- sided so as to permit him to thoroughly enjoy the beauties of the scenery, and the pleasures of out-door life in a region so attractive at that season of the year. The turnpike, hard and smooth as a city pave- ment, wound over and around romantic hills— hills crowned u ith cedar and evergreen laurel, and scarred with cliffs and caverns. It passed through forests, aromatic with ripening nuts and changing leaves, and glorious in the colors of early Autumn. Then its course would traverse farms of gracefully undulating acres, bounded by substantial stone-walls, marked by winding streams of pure spring water, centering around great roomy houses, with huge outside chim- neys, and broad piazzas, and with a train of humble negro cabins in the rear. The horses were proud- stepping thoroughbreds, the women comely and spir- ited, the men dignified and athletic, and all seemed well-fed and comfortable. The names of the places along the route recalled to Harry's memory all he had ever read of the desperate battles and massacres and single-handed encounters of Daniel Boone and his associates, with the Indians in the early history of the country. 96 THE RED ACORN. "This certainly seems an ideal pastoral land — a place where one would naturally locate a charming idyl or bucolic love-story! " he said one evening, to Surgeon Paul Denslow, after descanting at length upon the beauties of the country which they were "redeeming" from the hands of the Rebels. " Yes," answ^ered Dr. Denslow, " and it's as dull and sleepy and non-progressive as all those places are where they locate what you call your idyls and pasto- rals ! These people haven't got an idea belonging to this century, nor do they want one. They know how to raise handsome girls, distil good Avhisky, and breed fast horses. This they esteem the end of all human knowledge and understanding. Anything more is to them vanity and useless vexation of spirit." At last the regiment halted under the grand old beeches and hickories of the famous Camp Dick Rob- inson, in the heart of the Blue Grass Region. In this most picturesque part of the lovely Kentucky River Valley they spent the bright days of October very delightfully. Nature is as kindly and gracious in Central Ken- tucky as in any part of the globe upon which her sun shines, and she seemed to be on her best be- havior, that she might duly impress the Northern visitors. The orchards were loaded with fruit, and the forest trees showered nuts upon the ground. In every field were groups of persimmon trees, their branches bending under a Imrden of luscious fruit, which the frost had coated with sheeny purple out- ON THE MARCH. 97 side, and made sweeter than fine wine within. Over all bent softly brilliant skies, and the bland, bracing air was charged with the electricity of life and hap- piness. It was the very poetry of soldiering, and Harry began to forget the miseries of life in a Camp of In- struction, and to believe that there was much to be enjoyed, even in the life of an enlisted man. " This here air or the apple-jack seems to have a wonderfully improving efiect on Jake Alspaugh's chronic rheumatics,*" sneered Abe Bolton. It was a sunny afternoon. Bolton and Kent Ed- wards were just outside of the camp lines, in the shade of a grand old black walnut, and had re-seated themselves to finish devouring a bucketful of lush persimmons, after having reluctantly risen from that delightful occupation to salute Lieutenant Alspaugh, as he passed outward in imposing blue and gold stal- warthood. "I've been remarking that myself," said Kent, taking out a handful of the shining fruit, and delib- erately picking the stems and dead leaves from the sticky sides, preparatory to swallowing it. " He hasn't had an attack since we thought those negroes and teams on the hills beyond Cynthiana was John Morgan's Rebel cavalry." "Yes," continued Abe, helping himself also to the mellow date-plums, "his legs are so sound now that he is able to go to every frolic in the country for miles around, and dance all night. He's going to the Quartermaster's now, to get a horse to ride to a dance and candy-pulling at that double log-house four G "^ 5 98 THE RED ACORN. • miles down the Harrodsburg Pike. I heard hira talking to some other fellows about it when I went up with the squad to bring the rations down to the company." " Seems to me, come to think of it, that I have heard of some rheumatic symptoms recently. Re- member that a couple of weeks ago Pete Sanford got a bullet through his blouse, that scraped his ribs, don't you ? " "Yes," said Abe, spitting the seeds out from a mouthful of honeyed pulp. " Well, the boys say that Jake went to a candy- pulling frolic down in the Cranston settlement, and got into a killing flirtation with the prettiest girl there. She was taken with his brass buttons, and his circus-horse style generally, but she had another fel- low that it didn't suit so well. He showed his dis- approval in a way that seems to be the fashion down here ; that is, he ' laid for ' Jake behind a big rock with a six-foot deer rifle, but mistook Pete Sanford for him." "The dunderhead's as poor a judge of men as he's marksman. He's a disgrace to Kentucky " " At all events it served as a hint, which Alspaugh did not fail to take. Since that time there has been two or three dances at Cranston's, but every time Jake has had such twinges of his rheumatism that he did not think it best to ' expose himself to the night air,' and go with the boys." "O ! ouw ! — wh-i s-s-s-sh ! " sputtered Abe. spitting the contents of his mouth out explosively, while his face was contorted as if every nerve and muscle was being twisted violently. ON THE MARCH. 99 "Why, what is the matter, Abe ? " asked Kent, in real alarm. "Have you swallowed a centipede, or has the cramp-colic griped you ? " "No! I hain't swallowed no centerboard, nor have I the belly-ache — blast your chucldehead," roared Abe, as he sprang to his feet, rushed to the brook, scooped up some water in his hands, and rinsed his mouth out energetically. "Well, what can it be, then? You surely ain't doing all that for fun." "No, I ain't doing it for fun" shouted Abe, an- grier still ; " and nobody but a double-and-twisted idiot would ask such a fool question. I was paying so much attention to your dumbed story that I chewed up a green persimmon — one that hadn't been touched by the frost. It's puckered up my mouth so that I never will get it straight again. It's worse than a pound of alum and a gallon of tanbark juice mixed together. O, laugh, if you want to — that's just what rd expect from you. That's about all the sense you've got." There was enough excitement in camp to prevent any danger of ennui. The probability of battle gave the daily drills an interest that they never could gain in Ohio. The native Rebels were numerous and de- fiant, and kept up such demonstrations as led to con- tinual apprehensions of an attack. New regiments came in constantly, and were received with enthu- siasm. Kentucky and East Tennessee Loyalists, tall, gaunt, long-haired and quaint-spoken, but burning with enthusiasm for the Government of their fathers, 100 THE RED ACORN. flocked to the camp, doffed their butternut garb, as- sumed the blue, and enrolled themselves to defend the Union. At length it became evident that the Rebel "Army of Liberation " was really about crossing the Cum- berland Mountains to drive out the "Yankees" and recover possession of Kentucky for the Southern Con- federacy. Outposts were thrown out in all directions to gain the earliest intelligence of the progress of the move- ment, and to make such resistance to it as might be possible. One of these outposts was stationed at Wildcat Gap, an inexpressibly wild and desolate re gion, sixty miles from Camp Dick Robinson, where the road entering Kentucky from Tennessee at Cum- berland Gap crosses the Wildcat range of mountains. One da}' the startling news reached camp that an overwhelming Rebel force under Gen. Zollicoffer was on the eve of attacking the slender garrison of Wild- cat Gap. The "assembly" was sounded, and the regiment, hastily provided with rations and ammu- nition, was hurried forward to aid in the defense of the threatened outpost. Nature, as if in sympathy with the gathering storm of war, ceased her smiling. The blue, bending skies were transformed into a scowling, leaden- visaged can- opy, from which fell a chill, incessant rain. When the order to prepare for the march came Glen, following the example of his comrades, packed three days' cooked rations in his haversack, made his blankets into a roll, tieing their ends together, threw them scarf-fashion over his shoulder, and took his ON THE MARCH. 101 accustomed place as file-closer in the rear of his com- pany. He was conscious all the time, though he sutfered no outward sign to betray the fact, that he was closely watched by the boys who had been with him in Western Virginia, and who were eager to see how he would demean himself in this new emer- gency. He was shortly ordered to assist in the inspection of cartridge-boxes and the issuing of cartridges, and the grim nature of the errand they were about to start upon duly impressed itself upon his mind as he walked down the lines in the melancholy rain, ex- amined each box, and gave the owner the quantity of cartridges required to make up the quota of forty rounds per man. Those who scrutinized his face as he passed slowly by, saw underneath the dripping eaves of his broad- brimmed hat firm-set lines about his mouth, and a little more luminous light in his eyes. "Harry Glen's screwing his courage to the stick- ing point. He's bound to go through this time," said Kent Edwards. " The more fool he," answered Abe Bolton, adjust- ing his poncho so as to better protect his cartridges and rations from the rain. "If he Avanted to play the Avarrior all so bold why didn't he improve his oppor- tunities in Western Virginia, when it was fine weather and he only had three months to do it in ? Now that he's in for three years it will be almighty strange if he can't find a pleasanter time to make his little strut on the field of battle than in this infernal soak." *'I have seen better days than this, as the tramp 102 THE RED ACORN. remarked who had once been a bank cashier," mur- mured Kent, tightening the tompion in his musket- muzzle with a piece of paper, the better to exclude the moisture, and wrapping a part of the poncho around the lock for the same purpose. " Where is that canteen ? " ''It's where it'll do you no good until you need it much worse'n 3'ou do now. O, 1 know you of old, Mr. Kent Edwards," continued Abe, with that deep sarcasm, which was his nearest approach to humor. " I may say that IVe had the advantages of an intimate acquaintance with you for years, and when I trust j^ou with a full canteen of apple-jack at the beginning of such a march as this'll lie, Til be ready to enlist in the permanent garrison of a lunatic asylum, I will. This canteen only holds three pints ; that's great deal less'n 'you do. It's full now, and you're empty. Fill up some place else, and to- morrow or next day, when you'd give a farm for a nip, this'Ucome in mighty handy." The Hospital Steward approached, and said : "Captain, the Surgeon presents his compliments and requests that you send four men to convey your First Lieutenant Alspaugh to comfortable quarters which have been prepared for him in the hospital barracks. His rheumatic trouble has suddenly as- sumed an acute form — brought on doubtless by the change in the weather — and he is suffering greatly. Please instruct the men to be very careful in carrying him, so as to avoid all unnecessary pain, and also all exposure to the rain. He will have a good room in ON THE MARCH. 103 in the hospital, with a fire in it, and every atten- tion, so that you need have no fears concerning him." "I never had," said Kent, loud enough to be heard all over the right wing of the company. "I have," said Abe. "There's every danger in the world that he'll get well." Away the regiment marched, through the dismal rain, going as fast as the heavily laden men could be spurred onward by the knowledge of their comrades' imminent need. It was fearful hard work even so long as the pike lasted, and they had a firm, even foundation for their feet to tread upon. But the pike ended at Crab Or- chard, and then they plunged into the worst ronds that the South at any time offered to resist the pro- gress of the Union armies. Narrow, tortuous, un- worked substitutes for highways wound around and over steep, rocky hills, through miry creek bottoms, and over bridgeless streams, now so swollen as to be absolutely unfordable by less determined men, start- ing on a less urgent errand. For three weary, discouraging days they pressed onward through the dispiriting rain and over all the exhausting obstacles. On the morning of the fourth they reached the foot of the range in which Wildcat Gap is situated. They were marching slowly up the steep mountain side, their soaked garments clinging about their weary limbs and clogging their footsteps. Suddenly a sullen boom rolled out of the mist that hung over the distant mountain tops. 104 THE RED ACORN. Every one stopped, held their breaths, and tried to check the beating of their hearts, that they might hear more. They needed not. There was no difficulty about hearing the succeeding reports, which became ever}- instant more distinct. "By God, that's cannon!" said the Colonel. ' ' They're attacking our boys. Throw off every thing, boys, and hurry forward ! " Overcoats, blankets, haversacks and knapsacks were hastily piled, and the two most exhausted men in each company placed on guard over them. Kent and Abe did not contribute their canteen to the company pile. But then its weight was much less of an impediment than when they left Camp Dick Robinson. They employed the very brief halt of the regi- ment in swabbing out the barrels of their muskets very carefully, and removing the last traces of mois- ture from the nipples and hammers. "At last I stand a show of getting some return from this old piece of gas-tube for the trouble it's been to me," said Kent Edwards, as he ran a pin into the nipple to make assurance doubly sure that it was entirely free. "Think of the transportation charges I have against it, for the time I have lugged it around over Ohio and Kentucky, to say nothing of the man- ual labor and the mental strain of learning and prac- tising 'present arms,' 'carry arms,' 'support aims,' and such other military monkey-shines under the hot sun of last Summer ! " He pulled off the woolen rag he had twisted ON THE MARCH. 105 around the head of the rammer for a swab, wiped the rammer clean and bright and dropped it into the gun. It fell with a clear ring. Another dextrous move- ment of the gun sent it fljnng into the air, Kent caught it as it came down and scrutinized its bright head. He found no smirch of dirt or dampness. "Clean and clear as a whistle inside," he said, ap- provingly. "She'll make music that our Secession friends will pay attention to, though it may not be as sweet to their ears as 'The Bonnie Blue Flag.' " "More likely kick the whole northwest quarter section of your shoulder ofl* when you try to shoot it," growled Abe, who had been paying similar close attention to his gun. "If we'd had anybody but a lot of mullet-heads for officers we'd a' been sent up here last week, when the weather and the roads were good, and when we could've done something. Now our boys'U be licked before we can get where we can help 'em." ' Glen leaned on his musket, and listening to the deepening roar of the battle, was shaken by the surge of emotions natural to the occasion. It seemed as if no one could live through the incessant firing the sound of which rolled down to them. To go up into it was to deliberately venture into certain destruction. Mem- ory made a vehement protest. He recalled all the pleasant things that life had in store for him ; all that he could enjoy and accomplish ; all that he might be to others ; all that others might be to him. Every enjoyment of the past, every happy possibility of the future took on a more entrancing roseate- ness. 106 THE KED ACORN. Could he give all this up, and die there on the mountain top, in this dull, brutal, unheroic fashion, in the filthy mud and dreary rain, with no one to note or care whether he acted courageously or other- wise ? It did not seem that he was expected to fling his life away like a dumb brute entering the reeking shambles. His youth and abilities had been given him for some other purpose. Again palsying fear and ignoble selfishness tugged at his heart-strings, and he felt all his carefully cultivated resolutions weakening. " A Sergeant must be left in command of the men guarding this property,'' said the Colonel. "The Captain of Company A will detail one for that duty." Captain Bennett glanced from one to another of his five Sergeants. Harry's heart gave a swift leap, with hope that he migl>t be ordered to remain be- hind. Then the blood crimsoned his cheeks, for the first time since the sound of the firing struck his ears ; he felt that every eye in the Company was upon him, and that his ignoble desire had been read by all in his look of expectancy. Shame came to spur up his faltering will. He set his teeth firmly, pulled the tompion out of his gun, and flung it away disdain- fully as if he would never need it again, blew into the muzzle to see if the tube was clear, and wiped ofi" the lock with a fine white handkerchief — one of the relics of his by-gone elegance — which he drew from the breast of his blouse. "Sergeant Glan — Sergeant Glancey will remain," ON THE MARCH. 107 said the Caplain peremptorily. Glancey, the Captain knew, was the only son and support of a widowed mother. "Now, boys," said the Colonel in tones that rang like bugle notes, "the time has come for us to strike a blow for the Union, and for the fame of the dear old Buckeye State. I need not exhort you to do your duty like men; I know you too well to think that any such words of mine are at all necessary. Forward ! quick time! march ! " The mountain sides rang with the answering cheers from a thousand throats. The noise of the battle on the distant crest was at first in separate bursts of sound, as regiment after regiment came into position and opened fire. The intervals between these bursts had disappeared, and it had now become a steady roar. A wild mob came rushing backward from the front. "My God, our men are whipped!" exclaimed the young Adjutant in tones of anguish. "No, no," said Captain Bennett, with cheerful confidence. " These are only the camp rifi'-rafi*, who run whenever so much as a cap is burst near them." So it proved to be. There were teamsters upon their wheel-mules, cooks, officers' servants, both black and white, and civilian employes, mingled with many men in uniform, skulking from their companies. Those were mounted who could seize a mule any- where, and those who could not were endeavoring to keep up on foot with the panic-stricken riders. A.11 seemed wild with one idea : To get as far as 108 THE RED ACORN. l)osi5ible from the terrors raging around the moun- tain top. They rushed through the regiment and disordered its ranks. "Who are you a-shovin\ young fellow — say? " de- manded Abe Bolton, roughly collaring a strapping hulk of a youth, who, hatless, and with his fat cheeks white with fear, came plunging against him like a frightened steer. '•O boys, let me pass, and don't go up there! Don't ! You'll all be killed. I know it, I'm all the one of my company that got away — I am, really. All the rest are killed." " Heavens 1 what a wretched remnant, as the dry- goods man said, when the clerk brought him a piece of selvage as all that the burglars had left of his stock of broadcloth," said Kent Edwards. " It's too bad that you were allowed to get away, either. You're not a proper selection for a relic at all, and you give a bad impression of your company. You ought to have thought of this, and staid up there and got killed, and ict some better-looking man got away, that would have done the company credit. Why didn't you think of this?" "Git !" said Abe, sententiously, with a twist in the coward's collar, that, with the help of an oppor- tune kick by Kent, sent him sprawling down the bank. "Captain Bennett," shouted the Colonel angrily, •* Fix bayonets there in front, and drive these hounds off, or we'll never get there." A show of savage-looking steel sent the skulkers down a side-path through the woods. ON THE MARCH. 109 The tumult of the battle heightened with every step the regiment advanced. A turn in the winding road brought them to an opening in the woods which extended clear to the summit. Through this the torrent of noise poured as when a powerful band passes the head of a street. Down this avenue came rolling the crash of thousands of muskets fired with the intense energy of men in mortal combat, the deeper pulsations of the artillery, and even the fierce yells of the fight- ers, as charges were made or repulsed. Glen felt the blood settle around his heart anew. "Get out of the road and let the artillery pass! Open up there for the artillery ! " shouted voices from the rear. Everybody sprang to the side of the road. There came a sound of blows rained upon horses' bodies — of shouts and oaths from excited drivers and eager officers — of rushing wheels and of ironed hoofs striking fire from the grinding stones. Six long-bodied, strong-limbed horses, their hides reeking with sweat, and their nostrils distended with intense efibrt, tore past, snatching after them, as if it were a toy, a gleaming brass cannon, surrounded by galloping cannoneers, who goaded the draft horses on with blows with the flats of their drawn sabers. Another gun, with its straining horses and galloping attend- ants, and another, and another, until six great, grim pieces, with their scores of desperately eager men and horses, had rushed by toward the front. It was a sight to stir the coldest blood. The ex- cited infantry boys, wrought up to the last pitch b}" the spectacle, sprang back into the road, cheered vociferously, and rushed on after the battery. 110 THE RED ACORX. Hardly had the echoes of their voices died away, when they heard the battery join its thunders to the din of the fight. Then wounded men, powder-stained, came strag- gling back — men Avith shattered arms and gashed faces and garments soaked with blood from bleeding wounds. "Hurrah, boys!" each shouted with weakened voice, as his eyes lighted up at sight of the regiment, " We're whipping them ; but hurry forward ! You're needed." "If you ain't pretty quick," piped one girl-faced boy, with a pensive smile, as he sat weakly down on a stone and pressed a delicate hand over a round red spot that had just appeared on the breast of his blouse, " you'll miss all the fun. We've about licked 'em already. Oh ! — " ' Abe and Kent sprang forward to catch him, but he was dead almost before they could reach him. They laid him back tenderly on the brown dead leaves, and ran to regain their places in the ranks. The regiment was now sweeping around the last curve between it and the line of battle. The smell of the burning powder that tilled the air, the sight of flowing blood, the shouts of the fighting men, had awakened in every bosom that deep-lying hilling in- stinct inherited from our savage ancestr}'. which slum- bers — generally wholly unsuspected — in even the gen- tlest man's bosom, until some accident gives it a terrible arousing. Now the slaying fever burned in every soul. They were marching with long, quick strides, but well- ON THE MARCH. Ill closed ranks, elbow touching elbow, and every move- ment made with the even more than the accuracy of a parade. Harry felt himself swept forward by a current as resistless as that which sets over Niagara. They came around the little hill, and saw a bank of smoke indicating where the line of battle was. "Let's finish the canteen now," said Kent. "It may get bored by a bullet and all run out, and you know I hate waste." " I suppose we might as well drink it," assented Abe — the first time in the history of the regiment, that he agreed with anybody. "We may n't be able to do it in ten minutes, and it would be too bad to 've lugged that all the way here, just for some one else to drink." An Aide, powder-grimed, but radiant with joy, dashed up. "Colonel," he said, " you had better go into line over in that vacant space there, and wait for orders ; hnt I don't think you will have anything to do, for the General believes that the victory is won, and the Rebels are in full retreat." As he spoke, a mighty cheer rolled around the line of battle, and a band stationed upon a rock which formed the highest part of the mountain, burst forth with the grand strains of the " Star-spangled Banner." The artillery continued to hurl screaming shot and shell down into the narrow gorge, through which the defeated Rebels were flying with mad haste. 112 ♦ THE RED ACORN. CHAPTER X. THE mountaineer's REVENGE. And If w (• do but watch the hour. Then- never yet was human power Which could evade. If unforglven. The patient Bearch and vigil long Of him who treasures up a wrong. — Btkon. TTARRY GLEN'S first feeling when he found the J-X l)attle was really over, was that of elation that the crisis to which he iiad looked forward with so much apprehension, had passed without his receiving any bodily harm. This was soon replaced by regret that the long-coveted o"pportunity had been suffered to pass unimi)roved, and still another strong senti- ment — that keen sense of disappointment which comes when we have braced ourselves uj) to encounter an emergency, and it vanishes. There is the feeling of waste of valuable accumulated energy, which is as painful as that of energy misapplied. Still farther, he felt sadly that the day of his vin- dication had been again postponed over another weary period of probation. All around was intense enthusiasm, growing stronger every instant. It was the first battle that the victors had been engaged in, and they felt the tumultuous joy that the first triumph brings to young soldiers. It was the first encounter upon the soil of Kentucky ; it was the first victory between the Cum- THE MOUNTAINEERS REVENGE. 113 berland Mountains and the Mississippi River, and the loss of the victors was insignificant, compared with that of the vanquished. The cold drench from the skies, the dreary mud —even the dead and wounded — were forgotten in the jubilation at the sight of the lately insolent foe flying in confusion down the mountain side, recking for nothing so much as for personal safety. The band continued to play patriotic airs, and the cannon to thunder long after the last Rebel had dis- appeared in the thick woods at the bottom of the gloomy gorge. A detail of men and some wagons were sent back after the regiment's baggage, and the rest of the boys, after a few minutes survey of the battle-field, were set to work building fires, cooking rations and pre- paring from the branches and brush such shelter as could be made to do substitute duty for the tents left behind. Little as was Harry's normal inclination to manual labor, it was less than ever now, with these emotions struggling in his mind, and leaving his comrades hard at work, he wandered off to where Hoosier Knob, a commanding eminence on the left of the battle-field, seemed to offer the best view of the retreat of the forces of ZoUicoffer. Arriving there, he pushed on down the slope to where the enemy's line had stood, and where now were groups of men in blue uniforms, searching for trophies of the fight. In one place a musket would be found ; in another a cap with a silver star, or a canteen quaintly fashioned from altei- nate staves of red and white cedar. Each ^' find " was H 5* 114 THE RED ACORN. proclaimed by the discoverer, and he was immediately surrounded by a group to earnestly inspect and dis- cuss it. It was still the first year of the war ; the next year " trophies " were left to rot unnoticed on the battle-fields they covered. Hurry took no interest in the relic-hunting, but walked onward toward another prominence that gave hopes of a good view of the Rebels. The glimpses lie gained from this of the surging mass of fugitives iiitlamed liim with the excitement of the chase — of the most exciting of chases, a man-hunt. He forgot his tears — forgot how far behind he was leaving all the others, and became eager only to see more of this fas- cinating sight. Before he was aware of it, he was three or four miles from the Gap. Here a point ran l^oUUy down from the mountain into the valley, and ended in a ijare knob that over- looked the narrow creek bottom, along which the beaten host was forging its way. Harry unhesitat- ingly descended to this, and stood gazing at the swarm- ing horde below. It was a sight to rivet the attention. The narrow level space through which the creek me- nndered between the two parallel ranges of heights was crowded as far as he could see with an army which defeat had degraded to a demoralized mob. All semblance of military organization had well-nigh dis- appeared. Horsemen and footmen, infantry, cavalry and artillery, officers and privates, ambulances creak- ing under their load of wounded and dying, ponder- ous artillery forges, wagons loaded with food, wagons loaded with ammunition, and wagons loaded with lux- uries for the delectation of the higher officers, — all THE mountaineer's REVENGE. 115 huddled and crowded together, and struggled forward with feverish haste over the logs, rocks, gullies and the deep waters of the swollen stream, and up its slippery banks, through the quicksands and quagmires which every passing foot and wheel beat into a still more grievous obstacle for those that followed. Hope- lessly fiigged horses fell for the last time under the merciless blows of their frightened masters, and added their great bulks to the impediments of the road. The men were sullen and depressed — cast down by the wretchedness of earth and sky, and embittered against their officers and each other for the blood use- lessly shed — oppressed with hunger and weariness, and momentarily fearful that new misfortunes were about to descend upon them. In brief, it was one of the saddest spectacles that human history can present : that of a beaten and disorganized army in full retreat, and an army so new to soldiership and discipline as to be able to make nothing l)ut the worst out of so great a calamity — it was a rout after a repulse. Nearly all of the passing thousands were too much engrossed in the miseries of their toilsome progress to notice the blue-coated figure on the bare knob above the road. But the rear of the fugitives was brought up b}' a squad of men moving much more leisurely, and with some show of order. They did not plunge into the mass of men and animals and vehicles, and struggle with them in the morass which the road had now become, but deliberately picked their way along the sides of the valley where the walking was easier. They saw Harry, and under- 116 THE RED ACORN. stood as soon as they saw, who he was. Two or three responded to their first impulse, and raising their guns to their shoulders, fired at him. A bullet slapped against the rock upon Avhich he was partially leaning, and fell at his feet. Another spattered mud in his face, and flew away, singing viciously. At the reports the fear-harassed mob shuddered and surged forward through its entire length. The companions of those who fired seemed to re- proach them with angry gestures, pointing to the effect upon the panicky mass. Then the whole squad rushed forward toward the hill. Deadly fear clutched Harry Glen's heart as the angry notes of the bullets jarred on his senses. .Then pride and the animal instinct of fighting for life flamed upward. So swiftly that he was scarcely con- scious of what he was doing he snatched a cartridge from the box, tore its end between his teeth, and rammed it home. He replaced the ramrod in its thimbles with one quick thrust, and as he raised his eyes from the nipple upon which he had placed the cap, he saw that the Rebel squad had gained the foot of the knoll and started up its side. He raised the gun to fire, but as he did so he heard a voice call out from behind him : " Skeet outen thar ! Skeet outen thar ! Come up heah, quick ! " Harry looked in the direction of the voice. He saw a tall, slender, black-haired man standing in the woods at the upper edge of the cleared space. He was dressed in butternut jeans, and looked so much like the Rebels in front that Harry thought he was THE mountaineer's REVENGE. 117 one of them. The stranger noticed his indecision, and called out again still more peremptorily : " Skeet outen thar, I tell ye ! Skeet outen thar ! Come up heah. I'm a friend — Fm Union." His rifle came to his face at the same instant, and Harry saw the flame and white smoke puii from it, and the sickening thought flashed into his mind that the shot was fired at him, and that he would feel the deadly ball pierce his body ! Before he could more than formulate this he heard the bullet pass him with a screech, and strike somewhere with a plainly sharp slap. Turning his head he saw the leading Reljcl stagger and fall. Harry threw his gun up, with the readiness acquired in old hunting days, and fired at the next of his foes, who also fell ! The other Rebels, as they came up, gathered around their fallen com- rades. Harry ran back to where the stranger was, as rapidly as the clinging mud and the steep hillside would permit him. '^Purty fa'r shot that," said the stranger, setting down the heavy rifle he was carefully reloading, and extending his hand cordially as Harry came panting up. " That's what I call mouty neat shooting — knock yer man over at 150 yards, down hill, with that ole smooth-bore, and without no rest. The oldest han' at the business couldnTve done no better." Harry was too much agitated to heed the compli- ment to his markraanship. He looked back anxiously and asked : " Are they coming on yet ? " "Skacely they hain't," said the stranger, with a 118 THE RED ACORN. very obvious sneer. " Skacely they hain't comin' on no more. They've hed enuff, they hev. Two of their best men dropt inter blue blazes on the first jump will take all the aidge ofFther appetite for larks. I know 'em." "But they Avill come on. They'll pursue us. They'll never let us go now," said Harry, reloading his gun with hands trembling from the exertion and excitement. He w^as yet too 3'oung a soldier to understand that his enemy's fright might be greater than his own. "Nary a time they won't," said the stranger, de- risively. "Them fellers are jest like Injuns ; they're red-hot till one or two gits knocked over, an' then they cool doAvn mouty siiddent. Why, me an' two others stopt the whole of ZoUicofTer's army for two days by shootin' the officer in command of the ad- vance-guard jest ez the}^ war a-comin' up the hill this side of Barboursville. Fact ! They'd a' been at Wildcat last Friday ef we hedn't skeered 'em so. They stopt an^ hunted the whole country round for bushwhackers afore they'd move ary other step." " But who are you ? " asked Harry, looking again at his companion's butternut garb, "I'm called Long Jim Fortner, an' I've the name o' bein' the pizenest Union man in the Rockassel Mountains. Thar's a good s'tifikit o' my p'litical principles " (pointing with his thumb to where lay the men who had fallen under their bullets). Harry looked again in that direction. Part of the squad were looking apprehensively toward him, as if they THE mountaineer's REVENGE. 110 feared a volley from bushwhackers concealed near him, and others were taking from the bodies of the dead the weapons, belts, and other articles which it was not best to leave for the pursuers, and still others were pointing to the rapidly growing distance be- tween them and main body, apparently adjuring haste in following. The great mental and bodily strain Harry had un- dergone since he had first heard the sound of cannon in the morning at the foot of Wildcat should have made him desperately weary. But the sight of the man falling before his gun had fermented in his blood a fierce intoxication, as unknown, as unsus- pected before as the passion of love had been before its first keen transports thrilled his heart. Like that ecstacy, this fever now consumed him. All fear of harm to himself vanished in its flame. He had actu- ally slain one enemy. Why not another ? He raised his musket. The mountaineer laid his hand up- on it. "No," he said, "that's not the game to hunt. "They'll do when thar's notliin' better to be hed, but now powder an' lead kin be used to more advantage. Besides they're outen range o' your smooth-bore now. Come." As Fortner threw his rifle across his shoulder Harry looked at it curiously. It had a long, heavy, six-sided barrel, with a large bore, double triggers, and a gaily striped hickory ramrod in its thimbles. The stock, of fine, curly rock-maple, was ornamented with silver stars and crescents, and in the breech were cunning little receptacles for tow and patches, J 20 THE RED ACORN. and other rifle necessaries, each closed by a polished silver cover that shut with a snap. It was evidently the triumph of some renowned Kentucky gunsmith's skill. The mountaineer's foot was on the soil he had trodden since childhood, and Harry found it quite difficult to keep pace with his stron^^, quick stride. His step landed firm and sure on the sloping surfaces, where Harry slipped or shambled. Clinging vines and sharp briers were avoided without an apparent eflfort, where every one grasped Harry, or tore his face and hands. The instinct of the wolf or the panther seemed to lead Fortner by the shortest courses through the pathless woods to where he came unperceived close upon the flank of the mass of harassed fugitives. Then creeping behind a convenient tree with the supple lightness of the leopard crouching for a spring, he scanned with eager eyes the mounted officers within range. Selecting his prey he muttered : " 'Taiu't him^ but he'll hev to do, this time." The weapon rang out shaiply. The stricken offi- cer threw up his sword arm, his bridle arm clutched his saddle-pommel, as if resisting the attempt of Death to unhorse him. Then the muscles all re- laxed, and he fell into the arms of those who had hur- ried to him. Harry fired into the mass the next instant ; a few random shots replied, and another impetus of fear spurred the mob onward. Fortner and Harry sped away to another point of interception, where the same scene was repeated, and THE mountaineer's REVENGE. 121 then to another, and then to a third, Fortner mutter- ing after each shot his disappointment at not finding the one whom he anxiously sought. When they hurried away the third time they were compelled to make a wide circuit, for the little valley suddenly broadened out into a considerable plain. Upon this the long-drawn-out line of fugitives gath- ered in a compact, turmoiling mass. "That's Little Rockassel Ford," said Fortner, pointing with his left hand to the base of the moun- tain that rose steeply above the farther side of the com- motion. " That's Rockassel Mountain runnin' up thar inter the clouds. The Little Rockassel River runs round hits foot. That's what's a-stoppin' 'em. They'll hev a turrible time gittin' acrost hit. Hit's mouty hard crossin' at enny time, but hit's awful now, fur the Rockassel's boomin'. The big rains hev sent her up kitin', an' hit's now breast-deep thar in the Ford. We'll git round whar we kin see hit all." Another wide detour to keep themselves in the concealment of the woods brought Fortner and Harry out upon an acclivity that almost overhung the ford, and those gathered around it. The two Unionists crawled cautiously through the cedars and laurel to the very edge of the cliflfand looked down upon their enemies. They were so near that everything was plainly visible, and the hum of conversation reached their ears. They could even hear the commands of the officers vainly trying to restore order, the curses of the teamsters upon their jaded animals, the ribald songs of the few whose canteens furnished them with 122 TJIE RED ACORN . forgetfiilness of defeat, and contempt for the surround- ing misery. All the flooding showers which had l)een falling upon hundreds of square miles of precipitous moun- tain sides were now gorging through the crooked, narrow throat of the Little Rockcastle. The torrent filled the ragged })anks to the l)rini, and in their greedy swirl undermined and tore from there logs, great trees, and even rocks. This w^as the barrier that sta\'ed the flight of th(^ fugitive throng, and it was this that they strove to put between them and the presumed revengeful vic- tors. On the bank, field and line officers lal)orod to calm their men and restore organization. It was in vain that they pointed out that there had been no pursuit thus far, and the unlikelihood of there being one. When did Panic yield to Reason ? In those demor- alized ears the thunder of the cannon at Wildcat, the crash of the bursting shells, and the deadly whistle of bullets still rang louder than any w^ords oflScers could speak. The worst frightened crowded into the stream in a frenzy, and struggled wildly with the current that swept their feet oS" the slimy limestone of the bottom, with the logs and trees dashing along like so many catapult-bolts, and with the horses and teams urged on b}^ men more fear-stricken still. On the steep slope on the other side glimmered numbers of little fires where those who were luck}' enough to get across were warming and drying themselves. "Heavens!" s:iid Harry with an anticipator}- THE mountaineer's REVENGE. 123 shudder, "if our men should come up, the first can- non sliot would make half these men drown them- selves in trying to get away." Fortner heeded him not. The mountaineer's eyes were fixed upon a tall, imperious looking man, whose collar bore the silver stars of a Colonel. " He has found his man at last," said Harry, no- ticing his companion's attitude, and picking up his own gun in readiness for what might come. Fortner half-cocked his rifle, took from its nipple the cap that had been there an hour and flung it away He picked the powder out of the tube, replaced it with fresh from his horn, selected another cap care- fully, fitted it on the nipple, and let the hammer down witli the faintest snap to force it to its place. His eyes had the look of the rattlesnake's when it coils for a spring, and his breast swelled out as if he was summoning all his strength. He stepped for- ward to a tree so lightly that there came no rustle from the dead leaves he trod upon. Harry took his place on the other side of the tree, and cocked his musket. So close were they to hundreds of Rebels with arms in their hands, that it seemed simply an invita- tion to death to call their attention. Fortner turned and waved Harry back as he heard him approach, but Glen had apparently ex- hausted all his capacity for fearing, in the march upon Wildcat, and he was now calmly desperate. The Colonel rode out from the throng toward the level spot at the base of the ledge upon which the two were concealed. The horse he bestrode was a mag- 124 TUK RED ACORN. niticeiit thoroughbred, whose fine action coulil not be concealed, even by his great fatigue. " Go and find Mars," said tlie Colonel to an orderly, "and tell him to build a fire against that rock there, and make us some coffee. We will not be able to get across the ford before midnight." The orderly rode off, and the Colonel dismounted and walked forward with the cramped gait of a man who had been long in the saddle. Still louder yells arose from the ford. A i)ower- ful horse, ridden by an officer who was trying to force his way across, had slipped on the river's glassy bed- stones, in the midst of Ji compact throng, and carried many with it down into the dccj) water below the crossing. The Colonel's lip curled with contempt as he con- tinued his walk. A sharp little click sounded from Fortner's rifie. He had set the hair trigger. He stepped out clear of the tree, and gave a pecu- liar whistle. The Colonel started as he heard the sound, looked up, saw who uttered it, and instinct- ively reached his hand back to tlie holster for a revolver. Down would scarcel}' have been ruffled by Fort- ner's light touch upon the trigger. Fire flamed from the rifle's muzzle. The Colonel's haughty eyes became stenier than ever. The holster was torn as he wrenched the revol- ver out. A clutch at the mane, and he fell forward on the wet brown leaves — dead ! THE MOU^'TALNEER S REVENGE. 125 Dumb amazement filled the horse's great eyes ; he stretched out his neck and smelled his lifeless master inquiringly. A shot from Harry's musket, fifty from the astounded Rebels, and the two Unionists sped away unhurt into the cover of the dark cedars. 126 THE KED ACORN. CHAPTER XI. THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS AND THE NIGHT. <.iod sits uiwn the Throne of Klnfrs And Judges unto Judgment brings : Why thi-n so long Maintain your wrong, And favor lawless things ? Defend the poor, the fatherless ; Their crj-Ing Injuries redress : And vindicate The desolate. Whom wicked men oppress. — Gkobok Sandy's Pabaphbase of Psalm Lixxir. "TpORTXER and Gli^n were soon so far away from -L the Ford that the only reminder of its neigli- borhood were occasional glimpses, caught through rifts in the forest, of the lofty slope of Rockcastle :\loantain, now outlined in the gathering darkness by twinkling fires, which increased in number, and climbed higher towards the clouds as fast as the fugi- tives succeeded in struggling across the river. "That's a wonderful sight," said Harry, as they paused on a summit to rest and catch breath. "It reminds me of some of the war scenes in Scott, or the Iliad." " Hit looks ter me like a gineral coon-hunt," said Fortner, " on'y over thar hit's the coons, an' not the hunters, that hev the torches. I wish I could put a bum-shoU inter every fire." "You are merciless." THKOUGH THE MOUNTAINS AND THE NIGHT. 127 "No more 'n they are. They've ez little marcy ez a pack o' wolves in a sheep-pen. ^•Well, continued Fortner, meditatively, "Ole Rockassel's gittin' a glut to-night. She'd orten't ter need no more now fur a hundred yeahs." "I don't understand you," said Harry. "Why, they say thet the Rockassel hez ter hev a man every Spring an' Fall. The Injuns believed hit, an' hit's bin so ever sence the white folks come inter the country. Last Spring hit war the turn o' the Fortner kin to gi'n her a man, an' she levied on a fust cousin o' mine — a son o' Aunt Debby Brill. But less jog on ; we've got a good piece fur ter go." It was now night — black and starless, and the dense woods through which they were traveling made the darkness thick and impenetrable. But no check in Fortner's speed hinted at any ignorance ot the course or encountering of obstacles. He contin- ued to stride forward with the same swift, certain step as in the day time. But for Harry, who could see nothing but his leader's head and shoulders, and whose every effort was required to keep these in sight, the journey was full of painful toil. The relaxation from the intense strain manifested itself in proportion as they seemed to recede from the presence of the enemy, and his spirits flagged continually. In the daylight the brush and briers had been an- noying and hurtful, and the roughness of the way very trying. Now the one was wounding and cruel ; the other made eveiy step with his jaded limbs a tor- ture. With the low spirits engendered by the great fatigue, came a return of the old fears and tremors. 128 THE RED ACORN. The continual wnils of the wildcats roundabout filled him with gloomy forebodings. Every hair of his head stood stiffly up in mortal terror when a huge catamount, screaming like a fiend, leaped down from a tree, and confronted them for an instant with hid- eously-gleaming yellow, eyes. ''Cuss-an'-burn the nasty varmint! " said Fortner angrily, snatching up a pine knot from his feet and flino:ing it at the beast, which vanished into the dark- ness with another curdling scream. "Don't that man know what fear is T' wondered Harry, ignorant that the true mountaineer feels to- ward these vociferous felidfe about the same contempt with which a plainsman regards a coyote. At length Fortner slackened his pace, and began to move with caution. • " Are we coming upon the enemy again ? " asked Harry, in a loud whisper, which had yet a perceptible quaver in it. " No," answered Fortner, " but we're a-comin' ter what is every bit an' grain ez dangersome. Heah's whar the path winds round Blacksnake Clift, an' ye'U hev ter be ez keerful o' your footin' ez ef ye war treadin' the slippaiy ways o' sin. The path's no wider 'n a hoss!s back, an' no better ter walk on. On the right hand side hit's several rods down ter whar the creek's tearin' 'long like a mad dog. Heah hit now, can't ye ? '' For some time the roar of the torrent sweeping the gorire had filled Harry's ears. " Ye want ter walk slow,'' continued Fortner, " an' feel keerfuUy with yer foot every time afore ye sot THROUGH THE xMOUNTAINS AND THE NIGHT. 129 hit squar'ly down. Keep yer left hand a-feelin' the rocks above yer, so'ts ter make shore all the time thet ye're close ter 'em. 'Bout half way, thar's a big break in the path. Hit's jess a long step acrost hit. Take one step arter I say thet I'm acrost ; then feel keer- fully with yer left foot fur the aidge o' the break, an' then step out ez long ez ye kin with yer right. That'll bring ye over. Be shore o' yer feet, an' ye'll be all right." Harry trembled more than at any time before. They were already on the path around the steep cliff. The darkness was inky. The roar of the waters be- low rose loudly — angrily. The wails of the wildcats l)ehind, overhead and in front of them, made it seem as if the sighing pines and cedars were inhabited with lost spirits shrieking warnings of impending disaster. Harry's foot came down upon a boulder which tiu-ned under his weight. He regained his balance with a start, but the stone toppled over. He listened. There were scores of heart-beats before it splashed in the water below. "Not so much as a twig between here and etern- ity," he said to himself, with a shudder. Then aloud : " Can't we stay here, some place, and not go along there to-night ? " The roar of the water drowned his voice before it reached Fortner's ears, and Harry, obeying the in- stinct to accept leadership, followed the mountaineer tremblingly. In a little while he felt — more than saw — Fortner stop, adjust his feet, and make a long stride forward with one of them. Glen collected himself for the I 130 THE RED ACORN. same effort. He had need of all his rosolution, for the many narrow escapes Avhich he had made from slipping into the hungry torrent, had shaken every nerve. 'Tm over," called out Fortucr. "Ye tr}^ hit now. " Harry balanced his gun so as to embarrass him the least, and carefully felt with his left foot for the edge of the chasm. The catamount announced his renewed presence by a vindictive scream. The clouds parted just enough to let through a rift of gray light, but it fell not upon the brink of the black gap in the path. It showed for an instant the whirlpool, with fragments of tree trunks, of ghastly likeness to drowned human bodies, eddying dizzily around. "Come on," called out Fortner, impatiently. Harry stepped out desperately. For a mental eternity he hung in air. His hands relaxed and his gun dropped with a crash and a splash. Then his foot touched the other side with nervous doubtfulness. It slipped, and he felt himself falling — falling into all that he feared. Fortner grasped his collar with a strong hand, and dragged him up against the rocky wall of the path. "Thar, yer all right," he said, panting with the exertion, "but hit wuz a mouty loud call fur ye. GabrieFs ho'n could n't 've made a much mo' power- ful one." "IVe lost my gun," said Harry, regretfully, as soon as he could compose himself. " Cuss-an'-burn the blasted ole smooth-bore," said Fortner, contemptuously. '' Don't waste no tears on THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS AND THE NIGHT. 131 thet ole kick-out-behiud. We'll go "long 'tween Wild- cat an' the Ford, an' pick up a wagon-load uv ez good shooters ez thet clumsy chunk o' pot-metal wuz. Shake yourself together. We've on'y got a mile or so ter go now." In Harry's condition, the 'Mnile or so" seemed to be stretching out a long ways around the globe, and he began to ask himself how near he was to the much-referred-to "heart of the Southern Confed- eracy." At length a little fading toward gray of the thick blackness, told that they had emerged from the heavy woods into more open country. Harry thought they were come to fields, but he could see nothing, and without remark plodded on painfully after his leader. Suddenly a pack of dogs inuuediately in front of them broke the stillness with a startling diapason, ranging from the deep bass of the mastiff to the ring- ing bark of the fox-hounds. Mingled with this was the sound of the whole pack rushing fiercely forward. Fortncr stopped in his tracks so abruptly that Glen stumbled against him. The mountaineer gave the peculiar whistle he had uttered at the Ford. The rush ceased instantly. The deep growls of the mas- tiffs and bull-dogs stopped likewise ; only the hounds and the shrill -voiced young dogs continued bark- ing. The darkness was rent by a long narrow lane of light. A door had l)een opened in a tightly-closed house, just beyond the dogs. " Down, Tige ! Git out, Beauty ! " said Fortner, imperiously. '"Lay down, Watch! Quiet, Bruno! 132 THE RED ACORN. The clamors of the gang changed to little yelps of welcome. "Is that you, Jim?" inquired a high-pitched but not unpleasant voice, from the door. "Yes, Aunt Debh}^" answered Fortner, "an' I hev some one with me." As the two approached, surrounded by the fawn- ing dogs, a slender, erect woman appeared in the doorway, holding above her head, by its nail and chain, one of the rude iron lamps common in the houses of the South. "Everything all right, Aunt Debby ? " asked Fort- ner, as, after entering, ho turned from firmly securing the door, hy placing across it a strong wooden bar that rested in the timbers on either side. " Yes, thank God ! " she said with quiet fervor. She stepped with graceful freedom over the floor, and hung the lamp up by thrusting the nail into a crack in one of the logs forming the walls of the room. "An' how is hit with ye?" she asked, facing Fort- ner, with her large gray eyes eloquent with solicitude. "O, ez fur me, I'm jes ez sound ez when I left heah last week, 'cept thet Fm tireder "n a plow mule at night, an' hongrier nor a b'ar thet's lived all Win- ter by suckin' hits paws."* ''I s'pose y' air tired an' hongry ; ye look hit," said the woman, with a compassionate glance at Harry, who had sunk limply into a chair before the glowing wood-fire that filled up a large part of the end of the room. "Set down by the fire," she continued, "an' I'll git ye some pone an' milk. Thar's nothin' better ter THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS AM) THE NIGHT. 1 u3 start in on when yer rale empty." She went to a rude cupboard in the farther part of the room, whence the note of colliding crockery soon gave information that she was busy. Fortner took a bunch of tow from his pouch, and with it wiped ofl' every particle of dumi)ness from the outside of his rifle, after which he laid the gun on two wooden hooks above the fireplace, and hung the accoutermcnts on deer hoiTis at its breech. " Pull oflF yer shoes an' toast yer feet," he said to Harry. " The firell draw the tiredness right out."" Harry's relaxed fingers fumbled vainly with the wet and obstinate shoe-strings. Aunt Debby came up with a large bowl of milk in each hand, and a great circular loaf of corn-bread under her arm. She placed her burden upon the floor, and with quick, deft fingers loosened the stubborn knots without an apparent efibrt, drew oflf the muddy shoes and set them in a dark corner near the fire]:)lace before Harry fan-ly realized that he had let a Avoman do this hum- ble office for him. The sight and smell of food aroused him from the torpor of intense fatigue, and he devoured the homely fare set before him with a relish that he had never before felt for victuals. As he ate his senses awakened so that he studied his hostess with interest. Hair which the advancing years, while bleaching to a snowy white had still been unable to rob of the curling waves of girlhood, rip- pled over a broad white brow, sober but scarcely wrinkled ; large, serious but gentle gray eyes, and a small, firm mouth, filled with even white teeth were the salient features of a face at once resolute, refined 134 TTT?-: RED ACUKN. and womanly. Long, slender hands, small feet, cov- ered with coarse but well-fitting shoes, a slight, erect figure, sugsrestive of nervous strength, and clad in a shapely homespun gown stamped her as a superior specimen of the class of mountaineer women to which she belonged. '' Heah's "nuther pone, honey," she sud to Fort- ner, as she handed both of them segments of another disk of corn-bread, to replace that which they had ravenously devoured. " An' le'me till yer bowls agin. Hit takes a powerful sight o' bread an' milk ter do when one's rale hongry. But "tain't like meat vittels. Ye can't eat 'nuft' ter do ye harm." She took from its place behind the rough stones that formed the jam of the fireplace a rude broom, made by shaving down to near its end long slender strips from a stick of pliant green hickory, then turn- ing these over the end and confining them by a band into an exaggerated mop or brush. With this she swept back from the hearth of uneven stones the live coals flung out by the fire. " Thar's some walnut sticks amongst thet wood," she said as she replaced the hearth-broom, " an' they pops awful." From a pouch-like basket, made of skilfully inter- woven hickory strips, and hanging against the wall, she took a half-finished stocking and a ball of yarn. Drawing a low rocking-chair up into the light, she seated herself and began knitting. As he neared the last of his second bowl of milk Fortner bethought himself, and glanced at Aunt Debby. Her work had fallen from her nervous THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS AND THE NIGHT. 135 hands and lay idly in her Jap, while her great eyes were fixed hungrily upon him. " They've bin fonten over ter Wildcat to-day," he said, answering their inquiry, without waiting to empty his mouth. "Yes, I heared the cannons," she said with such gentle voice as made her dialect seem quaint and sweet. " I dim up on Bald Rock at the top o' the mounting an' lissened. I could see the smoke raisin', but I couldn't tell nothin'. Much uv a font ? " "Awful big 'un. Biggest 'un sence Buner Vister. Ole Zollicoifer pitched his whole army outer Kunnel Garrard's rijimint. Some other rijiments cum up ter help Kunnel Garrard, an' both sides fit like devils fur three or fur hours, an' the dead jess lay in winrows, an' " The demands of Fortner's unappeased appetite here rose superior to his desire to impart information. He stopped to munch the last bit of corn-bread and drain his bowl to the bottom. "Yes," said Aunt Debby, inhospitably disregard- ing the exhaustion of the provender, and speaking a little more quickly than her wont, " but which side whipt ? " "Our'n, in course," said Fortner, with nettled sur- prise at the question. "Our'n, in course. Old Zol- licoflfer got ez bad a lickin' ez ever Gineral Zach Tay- lor gi'n the Mexicans. " " Rayally ? " she said. Gratification showed itself in little lines that coursed about her mouth, and her e^^es illumined as when a light shines through a win- dow 136 THE RED ACORN. "Yes," answered Fortner. "Like hound:^, and run clean ter the Ford, whar they're now a-foiiten an' strugglin to git acrost, and drowndin' like so many stampeded cattle. " '^ Glory ! Thank God ! " said Aunt Dol)l)y. Her earnestness expressed itself more by the intensity of the tone than its rise. "Evidently a tolerable regular attendant at Meth- odist camp-meetings," thought Harry, rousing a little from the torpor into which he was falling. Her faded cheek flushed with a little confusion at having suftered this outburst, and picking up her knitting she nervously resumed work. Fortner looked wistfully at the bottom of his emptied bowl. Aunt Debby took it away and speed- ily returned with it fille^l. She came back with an air of eager exi)ectancy that Fortner would continue his narrative. But unsatisfied hunger still dominated him, and he had thoughts and mouth only for food. She sat down and resumed her knitting with an ap- parent effort at composing herself. For a full minute the needles clicked industri- ously. Then they stopped ; the long, slender fingers clenched themselves about the ball of yarn ; she faced Fortner, her eyes shining with a less brilliant but intenser light. "Jim Fortner," she said with low, measured dis- tinctness, "why don't ye go on? Is thar somethin' thet ye'r afeered ter tell me ? What hez happened ter our folks ? Don't flinch from tellin me the wust. I'm allers willin' ter bow ter the will o' the Lord THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS AND THE NIGHT. 137 without a murmur. On'y let me know what hit is." "Why, Aunt Debby, thar hain't been nothin' happened ter 'em," said Fortner, deeply surprised. "Thar ain't nothin' ter tell ye 'bout 'em. They're all safe. They're in Kunnel Garrard's rijimint, ez ye know, an' hit fit behind breastworks, an' didn't lose nobody, ska.cely — leastwise none uv our kin." She rose quickly from her chair. The ball of yarn fell from her lap and rolled unheeded toward the glowing coals under the forelog. With arms out- stretched, hands clasped, and eyes directed upward in fervent appeal, there was much to recall that Deb- orah from whom she took her name — that prophetess and priestess who, standing under the waving palm trees of Baal-Tamar, inspired her countrymen to go forth and overthrow and destroy their Canaanitish op- pressors. "O, God!" she said in low, thrilling tones, " Thou'st afo retimes gi'n me much ter be thankful fur, as well ez much ter dumbly ba'r when Thy rod smote me fur reasons thet I couldn't understand. Thou knows how gladly I'd've gi'n not on'y my pore, nigh-spent life, but also those o' my kinsmen, which I prize much higher, fur sech a vict'ry ez this over the inimies of Thee an' Thy people. But Thou'st gi'n hit free ez Thy marcy, without axin' blood sacri- fice from any on us. I kin on'y praise Thee an' Thy goodness all my days." Fortner rose and li-stened with bowed head while she spoke. When she finished he snatched up the 6* 138 THE RED ACORN. ball of shriveling yarn and qucnclied its smoking with his hand. Looking tixedly at this he said softly: "Aunt Dehby, honey, I hain't tole ye all yit.'' "No, Jim? " "No," saitl he, slowly winding: iij) the yarn, ''Ar- ter the fouten wuz thru with at the Gap I slipt down the mounting, an' come in on the r'ar uv those fel- lers, an' me an' this ere man drapt two on 'em." "I kinder 'spected ye would do something uv thet sort." "Then we tuk a short cut an' overtuk 'em agin, an' we drapt another." Aunt Debby's eyes expressed surprise at this con- tinued good fortune. "An' then we tuk 'nuthcr short cut, an' saved 'nuther one." Aunt l)ebl)y waited for him to continue. "At last — jess ez they come ter the Ford — I seed our man," "Seed Kunnel Bill Pennington?" The great gray eyes were blazing now. " Yes." Fortner's speech was the spiritless drawl of the mountains, and it had now become so languia\v reminded him of the preced- ing day. Sunny peace and contentment reigned. The door stood wide open, and as it faced the south, the noonday sun pusfied in — clear to the opposite wall — a broad band of mellow light, vividly telling of the glory he was shedding where roof nor shade checked his genial glow. On the smooth, hard, ashen floor, in the center of this bright zone, sat a matrf)nlv cat, giving with tongue and paw dainty finishing touches to her morning toilet, and watching with ma- ternal pride a kittenish game of hide-and-seek on the front step. Through the open doorway came the self-complacent cackling of hens, celebrating their latest additions to their nests, and the exultant call of a cock to his feathered harem to come, admire and partake of some especially fat worm, which he had just unearthed. Farther away speckled Guinea chick- ens were clamoring their satisfaction at the improve- ment in the weather. Still farther, gentle tinklings hinted of peacefully-browsing sheep. AUNT DKHBY BRILL. 143 Inside the house, bunches of sweet-smelting medi- cinal herbs, hanging against the walls to dry, made the air heavy with their odors. Aunt Debby was at work near the bright zone of sun-rays, spinning j^irn with a ''big wheel." She held in one hand a long, slender roll of carded wool, and in the other a short stick, with which she turned the wheel. Setting it to whirling with a long sweep of the stick against a spoke, she would walk backward while the roll was twisted out into a long, thin thread, and then walk for- ward as the yarn was wound upon the spindle. When she walked backward, the spindle hummed sharply ; when she came forward, it droned. There was a stately rhythm in both, to which her footsteps and graceful sway of body kept time, and all blended har- moniously with the camp-meeting melody she was softly singing : "Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow Thee ; Naked, poor, despised, forsaken, Thou from honce my all shalt be. Perish every fond ambition — All I've sought, or hoped, or known ; Yet how rich is my condition — God and Heaven still my own." A world of memories of a joyous past, unflecked by a single one of the miseries of the present, crowded in upon Harry on the wings of this well-remembered tune. It was a favoritq hymn at the Methodist church in Sardis, and the last time he had. heard it was when he had accompanied Rachel to the church to attend services conducted by a noted evangelist. Ah, Rachel ! — what of her ? 144 THE RED ACORN. He had not thought of her «iuce a swift recollec- tion of her words at the parting scene on the piazza had corae to spur up his faltering resolution, as the regiment advanced up the side of Wildcat. Now one bitter thought of how useless all that he had gone through with the day before was to rehabilitate him- self in her good opinion was speedily chased from his mind by the still bitterer one of the contempt she must feel for him, did she but know of his present abject prostration. After all, might not the occurrences of yesterday be but the memories of a nightmare ? They seemed too unreal for i)r()bability. Perhaps he was just recov- ering consciousness after the delirium of a fever. The walnut sticks in the fireplace popped as sharply as pistols, and he trembled from head to foot. "Heavens, Fm a "bigger coward than ever," h*e said bitterly, and turning himself painfully in bed. he fixed his eyes upon the wall. '• 1 was led to believe," he continued, "that after 1 had once been under fire, I would cease to dread it. Now, it seems to me more dreadful than I ever imagined it to be." Aunt Debby's wheel hummed and droned still louder, but her pleasant tones rode on the cadences like an iEolian haip in a rising wind : " Man may trouble and distress me, 'T will but drive me to Thj' breast ; Life with trials hard may press me ; Heaven will brini; me sweeter rest. O, 't is not in grief to harm me, "WTiile Thy love is left to me. O, 't were not in joy to charm me. Were that joy unmixed with Thee." AUNT DEBBY BRILL. 145 He wondered weakly wh}^ there were no monas- teries in this land and age, to serve as harbors of ref- wge for those who shrank from the tearfulness of war. He turned over again wearily, and Aunt Debby, looking toward him, encountered his wide-open eyes. " Yer awake, air ye? " she said kindly. "Hope I did n't disturb you. I wuz tryin' ter make ez little noise ez possible." "No, you didn't rouse me. It's hard for me to sleep in daylight, even when fatigued, as I am." " Ef ye want ter git up now," she said, stopping the wheel by pressing the stick against a spoke, and laying the ''roll" in her hand upon the wheel-head, "I'll hev some breakfast fur ye in a jiffy. Ye kin rise an' dress while I run down ter the spring arter a fresh bucket o' water. " She covered her head with a "slat sun-bonnet," which she took from a peg in the wall, lifted a cedar watei-pail from a shelf supported by other long pegs, poured its contents into a large cast-iron teakettle swinging over the fire, and whisked out of the door. Presently the notes of her hymn mingled in plaintive harmony with the sparkling but no sweeter song of a robin redbreast, twittering his delight in the warm sunshine amid the crimson apples of the tree that overhung the spring. "Will ye hev a fresh drink?" she asked Harry, on her retura. He took the gourdful of clear, cool water, which she offered him, and drank heartily. "Thet hez the name o' bein' the best spring in these parts," she said, pleased with his appreciation. K 7 Ht) THE RED ACORN. "An' hit's a never-fiiilin' spring, too. WeVe plenty o' water the dryest times, when everybody else's goes dry. " "That is delicious water," said Harry. "An' now I'll git ye yer breakfast in a minnit. The teakittle's a-bilin', the coffee's ground, the pone's done, an' when I fry a little ham, everything will be ready.'' As her culinary methods and utensils differed wholly from anything Harry had ever seen, he studied them with an interest sharpened not a little by a growing appetite for breakfast. The clumsy iron teakettle swung on a hook at the end of a chain fastened somewhere in the throat of the rhinnu'V. On the rough stones forming the hearth were a half-dozen "ovens'' and '•skillets" — circular, cast-iron vessels standing on legs, high enough to allow a layer of live coals to be placed beneath them. They were covered by a lid with a ledge around it, to retain the mass of coals heaped on top. The cook's scepter was a wooden hook, with which she moved the ket ties and ovens and lifted lids, while the relentless tire scorched hor arms and face ruddier than a cherry. It was a primitive way, and so wasteful of wood that it required a tree to furnish fuel enough to pre- pare breakfast ; but under the hands of a skillful woman those ovens and skillets turned out viands with a flavor that no modern appliance can equal. The joists of the house were thickly hung with the small delicious hams of the country — hams made from young and tender hogs, which had lived and fattened upon the acorns, fragrant hickory-nuts and dainty AUNT DEBBY BRILL. 147 beechnuts of the abundant "mast'' of the forest, ^ntil they were saturated with their delicate, nutty tlavor.* This w^as farther enriched by a piquancy gained from the smoke of the burning hickory and oak, with which tliey were cured, and the absorption of odors from the scented herbs in the rooms where they were dry- ing. Many have sung the praises of Kentucky's horses, whisky and women, but no poet has tuned his lyre to the more fruitful theme of Kentucky's mast- fed, smoke cured, herb scented hams. For such a man waits a crown of enduring bays. Slices of this savory ham, fried in a skillet — the truth of history forces the reluctant confession that the march of progress had not yet brought the grid- iron and its virtues to the mountains — a hot pome of golden-yellow meal, whose steaming sweetness had not been allowed to distill of}', but had been forced back into the loaf by the hot oven-lid ; coffee as black and strong as the virile infusions which cheer the hearls of the true believers in the tents of the Turk, and cream from cows that cropped the odorous and juicy grasses of mountain meadows, made a l)reakfast that could not have been more appetizing if composed hy a French c/ief, and garnished by a polyglot bill-of- f'are. Moved thereto by the hospitable urgings of Aunt Debby, and his own appetite, Harry ate heartily. Under the influence of the comfortable meal, the cheerful sunshine, and the rousing of the energies that follow a change from a recumbent to an erect posture, his spirits rose to a manlier pitch. As he could not walk without pain he took his seat in a 148 TIIK KKI) WUllS. slat-bottomed chair bv tlio side of the hearth, and Aunt IVl)hy, knitting in hand, ociupied a low rocker nearly opposite. "Where's Mr. Fortner?" asked Harry. *' Jim got up, arly, an' arter eatin' a snack .said he'd go out an' take a look aroinid — mebbe he mout go ez fur ez the Ford." As if to accompany II;irry's in^tiiu-livc tremor over the possibilities attending the resumption ot Fortner's prowling aroimd the tlanks of ZoIIieotler's army, the fire shot oil' a whole volley of sharp little explosions. Harry sprang two or throe inelies above his chair, then reddeneil violently, and essayed to conceal his confusion by assiduoijs attention with the poker to the wants of the tire. Aunt Debby regarded him witii gentle compas- sion. '* Yer all shuck up by the happenin's yesterday," she said with such tactful sympathy that his sensi- tive mettle was not offended. '' 'Tis nateral ye should be. Hit's allers so. Folks kin .say what they please, but fouten's terril)le tryin' to the narves, no matter who does hit. My husband wuz in the Mexican War, an' he's offen tole me thet fur weeks arter the battle o' Bunor Visty he couldn't heah a twig snap wi th- ou ten his heart poppin' right up inter his mouth, an' hit wuz so with everybody else, much ez they tried ter play off unconsarncd like. '' "Ah, really?" said Harry, deeply interested in all that concerned this woman, whose remarkable qualities were impressing themselves upon his recog- AUNT DEBBY BKIIL. 149 nition. "^Vhat part of tlie army did your husband belong to ! " '^Howuz in the Kentucky riiriinint ooinnianded by Kunncl Ilonry Clay, son o' tlio great IlcnryClay, who wuz killed thar. My liusband was promoted to a Leftenant fur his brav'ry in the battle. ''Then this is not your tirst experience with war?" "No, indeed," said she, wilji just a trace of pride swelling in the temple's delicate network of blue veins. "The P^)rtners an' the Brills air soljer fami- lies, an' ther young men hev shoiddered ther guns whenever the country needed fouten-men. Great gran'fathers Brill an' Fortner come inter the State along with Dan'I Boone nigh outer a hundred years ago, and sence then them an' ther descendants hev lit Injuns, Brittishers an' Mexikins evr'y time an ininiy raised a sword agin the country." " Many of them lose their lives? " " Yes, ev'ry war hez cost the families some mem- ber. Gran'fathers Brill an' Fortner war both on 'em killed at the Injun ambush at Blue Licks. I wuz on'y a bal)y when my father wuz killed at the massa- cre of Winchester's men at the River Raisin. My brother " •' Father of the man I was with yesterday ? " "No; Ills father wuz my oldest brother. My youngest brother— the 'baby' o' the family— wuz mortally wounded by a copper ])all in the charge on the Bishop's Palace at the takin' o' :\Ionterey." " And your husband— he went through t4ie war safely, did he ? " 150 THK RED ACORN. The ploasant, iiH)l)ilc linos iijion tho woman's faco congoalc(l into stony hardness. At the moment of Harry's question she was beuinnin*^ to count the stitches in her work for some feminine mystery of " narrowins: " or "' tiirnini^." She slopjjed, and liands and knittiuLT (h-oppi>d into lier lap. '•'■ My hiisl)and," she said slowly and bitterly. '* wuz spared by the Mcxikins thet he tit, but not by his own countrymen an' nei<:hb()rs. alnonir-^t whom lie wuz brung up. His blcMxl wuz not poure.l out on the soil he invaded, but wuz drunk by the l.-md his forefathers an' kinsmen bed died fur. The irodless (Jreasers on the Kii-r Grande war kinder ter him nor the (1u'!fs ter git inter a quarrel with David, at public gethcr- in's, an' kill him in sech a way ez ter hev a plea o' self-defense ter cla'r themselves on, but David tuck too good keer o' hisself ter git ketched that a-w.iy. an' he hurt one o' the bullies so bad thet he niver quite got over hit. He an' Kunnel Pennington lev- eled ther weepons on each other at a barbecue near London last Fall, but the byst:uiders interfered, an' prevented bloodshed fur a time." " When the war broke out, we never believed hit would reach us. Thar mout be trouble in Louisville :ind Cincinnati — some even thought hit likely that thar would be foutcn' in I^'.xington — but way up in the mountings wcM be peaceable an' safe allers. (h\v young men formed theirselves inter a company o' Home Gyards, an' elected my husband their Capting. Kunnel Pennington gathered together 'bout a hundred o' the poorest, orneriest shakes on the headwaters, an' tuck them oft* ter jine Sidney Johnson, an' ch-ive the Yankees 'way from Louisville. Everybody said hit wuz the best riddance o' bad rubbish the country 'd ever knowed, and when they wuz gone our chances fur peace seemed better 'n ever. "All the flurry made by ther gwine 'way hed died down, an' ez we heered nothin' from 'era, or the war, AUNT DEBBY BRILL. 155 people's niincls got quiet ag'in, an' they sot 'bout hur- ryin' up their Spring work. ''One bright, sweet mornin' in jNIay, I wuz at my Avork in the yard with Fortner — thet wuz my son's name — tixin' up the kittles ter dye .some 3'ain fur a coat fur him. Husband 'd went ter the other side o' the hill, whar the new terbacker ground wuz, ter cut (Hit some trees that shaded the plants. Tiie skies wuz ez bright an' fa'r ez the good Lord ever tnade 'cul I could heah the ringin' o' David's ax, ez he chopped away, an' hit seemed ter l)e sayin' ter me cheerfully all the time : ' Heah I am — hard at work.' Tiie smoke from some brush-piles thet he'd sot afire riz up slowly an' gently, fur thar wuz no wind a-stirring. The birds sung gayly 'bout their work o' nest-buildin\ an' I couldn't help singin' about mine. I left the kittles fur a minnit ter run down the gyarden walk, ter see how my bed o' pinks wuz comin' out, an' I sung ez I run. "Jest then a passel o' men come stringin' up the road ter the bars. They looked like some o' them thet Kunnel Pennington tuck 'way with him, but they rid better critters then any o' them ever hed, an' they were dressed in a sorter soljer-cloze, an' all o' 'em toted guns. " Something sent a chill ter my very heart the mo- ment I laid e\'es on 'em. Hit a'most stopped beatin' when I see Kunnel Bill Pennington a little ways be- hind 'em, with a feather in his hat, an' sword an' pistols in his belt. "When they waited at the bars fur him ter come up, I knowed instantly what they were arter. 156 THE RED ACORN. " 'Fortiier/ I said ter ni}' son, trvin"* tor speak cz low cz possible; ' Fortner, honey, slip back tlirouirh the bushes cz quick ez the Lord '11 let ye, an tell yer daddy thet Bill IVnninirton an' his franij air heah arter him. Sneak away, but when ye air out o' siirht, run fur yer life, honey.' "Ho turned tor go, but at that niinnil Bill Pen- nington shouted out : " ' Stop thar ! Don't ye send thet boy away ! Ef he moves a stop. I'll i)ut a bullet throuirh his brain ! ' Fortner would *ve run in spite o' him. but I wuz so skeered fur him thet I jumped ter his side an' kctched his arm. " ' K('(>p (juict, honey.' I >aid. * Likely they won't tind yer daddy at all.' "Vain hope I Kz I spoke, the sound o' David's a.\ rung out clearly and steadily. The cannons at Wild- cat, yesterday, didn't sound no louder ter mo. I could even tell thet he wuz choppin' a beech tree. The licks was oz a-sharp an' ringin' ez ef the ax struck iron. "Bill Pennington lit offen liis beast, an' walked toward me, with his sword a clatterin' an' his spurs u- jinglin'. '"Whar's that Yankeefied scalawag of a husband o' your'n ? Whar's Dave Brill ( ' he said savagely. "Hit seemed ter me thet every stroke from over the hill said ez plainly ez tongue could utter words : ' Heah lam. Come over heah! ' I tried ter gain time ter think o' something. " 'He started this mornin' on Roan ^loUy for Mt. Venion, to 'tend court,' I said, knowiu' thet I didn't dare hesitate ter make up a story. AUNT DERBY HRILL. 157 "Kunnel, thet air's a lie,' said Jake Johnson, who knowed us, ' Thar's Dave Brill's Roan Molly over thar, in the pasture.' " An' this hain't coui't-day in Mt. Vernon, neither/ said another. " 'I know your husband's on the place. I wuz tole so this mornin',' said Kunnel Bill. 'Hit '11 be much better fur ye, ef ye tell me whar he is. Hit '11 at least save yer house from bcin' sot afire.' "Rino^! rini? ! went David's ax, ez ef hit war a trumpet, shoutin' ter the whole world : ' Hcah I am. Come over heah ! ' " 'Ye kin burn our house ef yer thet big a villain,' I said ; ' but I can't tell ye no different.' "'Kunnel, thet's him a-choppin' over thar,' said Jake Johnson. ' I know he's cl'ared some new ground fur terbackcr on thet air hill-side.' "'I believe hit is,' said Kunnol Bill, listenin' a minnit, 'Parker, yean' Haygood go over thar an' git him, while some o' the rest o' ye look 'bout the stable an' fodder-stack thar. Mind my orders, an' see thet they air carried out. ' "His manner made me fear everything. A thought flashed inter my mind. Thar wuz thet horn thar." — Harry followed her eyes with his, and saw hanging on hooks against the wall one of the long tin horns, used in the South to call the men-folks of the farms to their meals. It was crushed and battered to useless- ness. — "I thought I'd blow hit an' attract his atten- tion. He mout then see them a comin' an' git away. I ran inter the house an' snatched the horn down, but afore I could put hit ter my lips, Bill Pen- 158 TIM-: RED ACOltX. nington jerked hit 'way from nu\ an' stamped on hit. " ' Deb Brill,' said he, with a mortally liati't'ul look, ' ver peart an' sassy an' hold, an' hev allcrs heen so, an' so 's yer Yankeetied hu>hand. Ye'vc hed yer own way ofl'en — too otfen. Now I'll iiev mine, an' wipe out some lon«r-stanlairiK' an' distiirhaner t( r lii«. hcttcrs, hy Ix'comin' a traitor to his country, an* indiu-in' others ter he traitors. He must he quieted. Come out an' listrn.' '• He pulltMl mr out inter the yard. D.ivr wuz still choppin' away. F'ur nearly every day fin niLdi thirty years, the .soun«l o' his ax hed heen music in my ear.'*. I had larned to know hit, even afore we wuz lovers, fur his father's land jinrd my father's, an' liit seems ter me thet I could tell the note o' his ax from thet o' everybody else, a'most ez airly ez I could tell a rob- in's sons: from a blackbird's. Girl, woman, wife an' mother, I hed listened to hit while I knit, wove, or spun, every stroke minirliiv with the sounds o' my wheel or loom an' the sonir o' the birds, an' tcllin' me whar he wuz, an' thet he wuz toilin' cheerfully tur me an' mine. '* Now, fur the fust time in all these years, hits steady stroni^ beat ])rought mis'r}' ter my ears. Hit wiiz ez the toilin' of bell fur some one not yit dead. My heart o'ny beat ez fast ez he chopped. Hit would give a great jump when the sound o' the blow reached me, an' then stand still until the next one came. "At last came a long — O, so long pause. " 'They've got thar,' said Bill Pennington, cranin' AUNT DKBHY BRILL. 159 forward his bead ter ketch the fust sound. ' He's seed 'em, an' is tryin' ter git 'way. But he kin never do hit. I know the men I sent ter do the job." ''Two ritie shots sounded a'most together, an' then immediately arter wuz a couple o' boastful Injun-like yells. " 'Thar, Deb, heah thet i Ye'r a widder now. Bo thankful thet I let ye oti' so easy. I ought by rights ter l)urn yer house, an' put thet boy o' your'n wliar he'll do no harm But this'll do fur an' example ter these mounting traitors. They've lost ther leader, an' ther hain't no one ter take his place. They'll know now thet we're in dead airnest. Boys, go inter the house an' crit all the guns thar is thar, an' what vittles an' blankets ye want ; but make haste, fur we must git away from heah in a hurry.' " I run ez fast ez my feet'd cai'ry me to whar David lay stone dead. Fortner saddled his colt an' galloped otf ter his cousin Jim Fortner's, ter rouse the Home Gyard. The colt reached Jim's house, bc- kase hits mammy wuz thar ; but my son never did. In takin' the siiortest road, he bed ter cross the dan- gerousest ford on the Kockassel. The young beast wuz skeered nigh ter death, an' hits rider wuz drowned." 160 THE UED ACORN. CHAPTER Xin. This kind o' Mjerin' ain't a mite like onr October tratnln', A chap could clear rigbl oat from tbcre, cf li only looked like ralnln'; And the Cunneln. loo, could klrer up their •liappo«ii with handanncra, An' send the Inilnes nkoutln* to the barroom, with their hanncn, (Fear u'Klttln' un 'em •putted.) an' a feller could cry quarter Ef he Ored away hi* ramrod arter tu much rum an' water. — JaM«» KlKSILL Lo\«-KLL. rj^IIK inoininL' iiftcr llio Imttlc, Kt'iit Kthvards was -L strollinir .'iround tlio cnni]) at Wildcat. '* Sliadcs of my hot throated ancestors who swallowed several fine farms by the tunTl)lerfiil, liow thirsty I am !" he said at lencrth. ''It's no wonder these Kentuckians are such hard drinkers. There's soniethinfr in the atinospluM-e that makes me drier the fartlu-r we ad- vance into the State. Maybe the pursuit of jrhny has somethins: desiccatinir in it. At least, all the war- riors I ever heard of seemed composed of cla}' that required as much moistenin*^ a-s unslaked lime. I will hie me to the hill of frankincense and the mountain of myrrh ; in other wonls, I'll po back where Abe is, and ir<*t what's left in the canteen." He found his saturnine comrade sittin*! on a log by a comfortable fire, restoring buttons which, like soldiers, had become ''missing b}' reason of exigen- cies of the campaign." The temptation to believe that inanimate matter AN APPLE JACK RAID. 161 can be actuated by obstinate malice is almost irresist- ible when one has to do with the long skeins of black thread which the soldiers use for their sewing. These skeins resolve themselves, upon the pulling of the first thread, into bunches of entanglement more hope- lessly perverse than the Gordian knot, or the snarls in a child's hair. To the inexperienced victim, desirous of securing the wherewithal to sew a button on, nothing seems easier than to pull a thread out of the bunch of loose filament that lies before him. Rash man ! Tliat simple mesh hatii a baffling ])()wer like unto theLahy- rinth of Arsin"', and long labor of fingers and teelli, aided by heated and improper language, fre(iuenlly fails to extract so much as a half foot of thread. Abe had stuck his needle down into the log beside him Near, were the buttons he had fished out of his pocket, and he was laboring with clumsy fingers and rising temper at an obdurate bun«'h of thread. "I've been round looking over the field," said Kent, as he came up. A contemptuous snort answered him. " You ought to've been along. I saw a great many interesting things." " O, yes. I s'po.se. Awful interesting. Lot o' dead men hiying around in the mud. 'Bout as inter- esting. I .should say, as a .spell o' setting on a Coron- er's jury. The things you find interesting would bore anybody' else to death." Abe gave the obstinate clump a savage twitch, which only made its knots more rebellious, and he looked as if strongly tempted to throw it into the tire. L 7* 162 THE RED AOORN. "Don't do it, Alx'," said Kont, with a laugh that irritated Abe worse still. 'Thread's thread, out here, H hundred miles from nowhere. You don't know where you'll get any more. Save it — my dear fellow — save it. Perchance you may yet sweetly be- guile many an hour of your elegant leisure in unrav- eling its fantastic convolutions with your taper lingers, and " " Lord I Lord ! " said Al)e with an expression of deep weariness, but without l(M)king in Kent'> direc- tion " who's pulled the string o' that clack-mill and set it to going i ^^'hon it gets started once it rolls out big wonls like punkins dropping out o' the tail of a wagon going up hill. And there's no way o' stopping it, either. You've just got to wait till it runs down." "The Proverbs .say so littingly that ' A fool de- lighteth not in wise instruction,*" sjiid Kent, as he stepped around to the other side of the fire. His foot fell upon a projecting twig, the other end of which flew up and landed a very hot coal on the back of Alx''s hand. Abe's action followed that of the twig. in the suddenness of his upspringing. He imrled an oath and a firebrand at his comrade. "This is really becoming domestic," said Kent as he laughingly dodged. "The gentle amenities could not cluster more thickly around our fireside, even if we were married." When Abe resumed his seat he did not come down exactly upon the spot from which he had arisen. It was a little farther to the right, where he had .-tuck the needle. He had tori:otten all about it, but he AX APPLE JACK RAID. 163 rose with a howl when it keenly rciiiindod him that like the star-spangled banner, it "was still there."" " Don't rise on my aceount, I beg," said Kent with a deprecatory wave of the hand, as he hurried off to where he could laugh with safety. A saucy drummer-boy, who neglected this precaution, re- ceived a cuff from Abe's heavy hand that thrilled the rest of the drum-corps with delight. When Abe's wrath sub^idecl from this ebullient stage back to its customary one of simmer, Kent ven- tured to return. " Say," said he. pulling over the coats and blankets near the fire, " where's that canteen ? " "Tiiere it is by the cups. Can't you see it? If it was a snake it'd bite you." " It's done that already, several times, or rather its contents have. You know what the lVil)le says, ' Riteth like a .serpent and stingeth like an adder ? ' Ah, here it is. But gloomy forebodings .seize me : it is su.spiciously light. Parado.xically, its lightness induces gravity in me. Hut that pun is entirely too fine-drawn for camp atmosphere." He shook the canteen near his ear. ''Alas! no gurgle responds to my fond caresses — Canteen, Mavourneen, O, why art thou silent, Thou voice of my heart? It is — woe is me — it is empty." "Of course it is — you were the last one at it." "I hurl that foul imputation back into thy teeth, base knave. Thou thyself art a very daughter of a horse-leech with a canteen of whisky." 164 THE KKI) .V'OKN. Abe looked at him inquiringly. ''You mu^^tVe found .some, some place," he said, "or you wouldn't be .so awful glib. It\s taken 'bout half-a-pint to loosen your tongue so that it'd run this way. I know you." "No, I've not found a spoonful. The eloquence of thii-st is the only inspiration I have at present. I fain would stay its cravings by (piaffing a beaker of mountain-distilled hair-curler. Mayhap this humble receptacle contains yet a few drops which escaped thy ravenous thirst." Kent turned the (•ant«'en upside down. an said, with deep dejection, "all that delicious lluid of yesterday, is now like the Father of his Country." " Eh i " .said Abe, puzzled. " Hecause it is no more —it is no more. It be- longs to the unreturning pa>t." " I say," he continued after a moment's pause. " let's go out and hunt for some. There nmst be plenty in this neighborhood. Nature never makes a want without providing .something to supply it. Therefore, judging from my thirst, tiiis comitry ought to be full of distilleries." They buckled on their i)elt.s. picked up their guns and started out, directing their .steps to the front. In spite of the sunshine the walk through the bat- tle-field was (lepressing. A chafing wind fretted through the naked limbs of the oaks and che>tnuts, and drew moans from the pines and the hemlocks. The brown, dead leaves rustled into little tawny hillocks, behind protecting logs and rocks. Fre- AN APPLE JACK RAID. 165 quently these took on the shape of long, narrow mounds as if they covered the graves of some ill- fated l)eing. who like themselves, had fallen to the earth to rot in dull ol)scurit y. The clear little streams tiiat in Sunnner-tinu' murmured musically down the slopes, under can()})ies of nodding roses and fragrant sweet-hrier, were now turbid torrents, brawling like churls drunken with nnich wine, and tearing out with savage wantonness their banks, matted with the roots of the blue violets, and the white-tlowered puccoon. Scattered over the mountain-side were fatigue- parties engaged in hunting uj) the dead, and burying them in slialiow graves, hastily dug in clay so red that it seemed as if saturated with the blood shetl the day before. The buriers thrust their hands into the pockets of the dead with the flinching, jiauseated air of men touching tilth, and took from the garments seeping with water and l)lo()d, watches, letters, ani- brotypes, money and trinkets, some of which they studied to gain a clue to the dead man's identity, some retained as souvenirs, but threw the most back into the grave with an air of loathing. The faces of the dead with their staring eyes and open mouths and long, lank hair, cloyed with the sand and nuid thrown up i)y the beating rain, looked indescribal)ly repul- sive. The buriers found it better to begin their work by covering the features witli a cap or a broad brinuned hat. It was difficult for the coarsest of them to fling a .spadeful of dank clay directl}- upon the wide-open eyes and seemingly-speaking mouth. "Those fellows' souls," said Kent, regardini; tlie 166 Tni: kkd acorn. coipses, " seem to have left their earthly houses in sueli haste that they forgot to close the doors and windows after them. Somewhere I have read of a .superstition that bodily tenements left in this way were liable to be entered and <»ecu{)ied by evil spirits, and from thi< rose the eustom of piously closiiii: the eyes and moullis of deceased friends." '"Nowoi-se spirit's likely to get into them than was shot out of 'em," growled Abe *' A Kebel w ith a gun is as bad an evil spirit as I everexju'ct to meet. But let's go on. It's another kind of an evil spirit that we are interested in just now — one that'll enter into anuths to steal away our l)rains.' By the way, what a weary hunt lie must have in your cranium for a load worth steal- ing." "There goes that clack-mill again. Great Ctesar I if the boys only had legs as active a.s your tongue what a racer the regiment would Iw I Cavalry 'd be nowhere." Toward the foot of the mountain their path led them across a noi.sy, swollen little creek, whose over- sowing waters were dyed deeply red and yellow by the load of hill clay they were carrying awa}' in their headlong haste. A little to the left lay a corpse of more striking appearance than any they had ^et seen. It was that of a tall, slender, gi'acefully formed young man, clad in an officer's uniform of rich gray cloth, lavishly ornamented with gilt buttons and gold lace. The features were strouir. but delicatelv cut, and the AN APPLE JACK RAID. 167 (lark skin smooth and fine textured. One shapely hand still clasped the hilt of a richly ornamented sword, with which he had evidently been directing his men, and his staring gray eyes seemed yet filled with the anger of battle. A bullet had reached him as he stood upon a little knoll, striving to stay the headlong flight. Falling backward his head touched the edge of the swift running water, which was now tilling his long, black locks with slimy sediment. '^The ounce o'l<>ad that done that piece o' work," said Abe, '" was better'n a horseload o' gold. A few more used with as good judgment would bring the rebellion to an end in short meter." "Yes," answered Kent, "he's one of the Chiv- alry ; one of the main props ; one of the fellows who are trying to bring about Secession in the hopes of being Dukes, or Marquises, or Earls — High Keepers of Ilis Majesty Jetf. Davis's China Spittoons, or (irand Custodians of the Prince of South Carolina's IMug Tol)acco, when the Southern ('onfederac}- gains its independence." '• Well," said Abe, raising the Rebel's hat on the point of his bayonet, and laying it across the corpse's face, "• he's changed bosses much sooner than he ex- pected. JeflJ". Davis's blood-relation, who presides over the Sulphur Confederacy, will j)ut on his shoul- der-straps with a branding-iron, and serve up his rations for him red-hot. I only wish he had more going along with him to keep him company." " Save your feelings against the Secessionists for expression with your gun in the next fight, and come I'long. I'm getting thirstier every minute." 168 THK KKD ACORN. Thoy walked on rapidly for a couple or three hours, without tinding much ciicourageiiient in tlicir search. The rugged mountain sides were hut thinly peoi)led, and the^ few poor cabins they saw in the ths- tance they decided were not promising enough of results to justify clamhering up to where they were perched. At la.st, almo>t wearied out, tiiey halted for a little while to rest and scan the interminahle waves of summits that stretched out U'tore tln-m. ''Ah/ said Kent, rising suddenly, "let's go on. Hopo dawns at last. I .-^mell apples. That's a i>er- fiune my nose never mistakes. We're near an or- chard. Where there's an orchard there's likrly to be a pretty good style of a house, and where in Ken- tucky there's a good style of a house there's a likeli- hood of being plenty of goo Iwards" hcKl in plac«- by stones and poles. A long AN APPLK JACK IIAID. 169 siring of wooden troughs, supported upon props, con- ducted the water from an elevated spring to the roof of one of the cabins, and the water could be seen issuing again from underneath the logs at one side of the cal)in. A very primitive cider mill — two wooden rollers fastened in a frame, and moved by a long sap- ling sweep attached to one of them — stood near. The ground was covered with rotting apple pomace, from which arose the odor that had reached Kent's nc)st>. "Hello!" said the latter, "here's luck; here's richness ! We've succeeded beyond our most sanguine expectations, as the boy said, who ran away from school to catch minnows, and caught a ducking, a bad cold ixnd a licking. We've struck an apple-jack dis- tillery, and as they've been at work lately, they've ])robably left enough somewhere to give us all that we can drink." Abe's sigh was ehxpient of a disbelief that such a consunnnation was j)ossible, short of the blissful here- after. Inside of one of the cabins they touiid a still nboiit the size of ti tub, with a worm of similar >m.ill pro portions, kept cool by the flow from the spring. Some tubs and barrels, in which the lees of cider were rapidly turning to vinegar, gave off a fruity, spirituous odor, but for awhile their eager search did not discover a bit of the distilled product. At last, Kent, with a cry of triumph, dragged from a place of cunning concealment a small jug, stopped with a corn- cob, lie smelled it hungrily. •' Yes, here is some. It's apple-jack, not a week old, and as rank as a Maj(n- General. Phew! I can* 8 170 TlIK HKI) ACOKN'. siiicll every stick they hiirned to distil it. Abe, watch me closely while I drink. I luaLnianimonsly take the lead, out of consideration for you. If 1 ain't dead in five minult!s, you try it." '*(), stop nionki'yini:, and drink." wa< the impa- tient an.-wer. Kent put tin* Jiiir to ins mouth and took a lonir drau«;ht. " Shade of old Fatiier Noah, tiie Hr>t tlrunkard," he said as he wiped th»' t«'ars from his eyes, " another swip like that woulil pull out all the rivets in my internal pipinirs. Heavens I it went down like pulling a eat out o( i\ hole hy the tail. Vm afraid to wip«' my mouth, lest my l)n alh l)urn a hole in the sleeve of my hloiise." Three-ipiarters of nn hour later, the spirits in the juu were lowerinc lV)lton drinkiniT tended to develop moroseness into .savagi'ry. " Ah, comfort me with apple-jack, and stay me with rtaiions of it," .said Kent Kdwards, settin*: down the juir with the circums|>ection of a man not yet too drunk to suspect that he is losin^r exact control of his less and arms. "That gets l^etter the deejier down you pro. First it was like swallowing a chestnut bur ; now, old baud-made Bourlxju couldn't Ixj smoother.'' AN APPLE JACK RAID. 171 "A man can get used to a'most anything," said Bolton. '' I get gladder every day, AIh', that I came into the army. I woulihrt liave missed all this experience for the tinest farm in the Miami Valley. ' 'T were worth ten yt'ftrs of peaceful life, To soKliiT half a day.' Sir Walter Scott says — as I improve him."" '•'Specially one of them soaking days when we were marching through the nnid to Wildcat." *' O, those were just thrown in to make us appre- ciate good weather when we have it. Otherwise we wouldn't. You know what Ihe song says : ' For Spring would be but gloomy weather, If we had nothing el.se but Spring.' " "Well, for n)y part, one o' them days was enough to p'i>on six months o' sunshine. I declare, J htliovt' I'll feel mildewed for the rest of my life. 1 know if I pulled ofl' my cU)thes you could .scrape the green mold otf of my back.'' '• And I'm sure that if we'd had the whole army to pick from, we couldn't 've got in with a better lot of boys and ofHcers. Every one of them \s true blue, and a man all the way through. It's the best regi- ment in the army, and our company's the best comi)a- ny in the regiment, and I flatter myself the company has n't got two other as good men us we are." " Your modesty '11 ruin you yet, Kent," said Abe, sardonically. "It's very painful to see a man going 172 THF. RED ACORN. 'ioiiikI nndorratinir liinisolf, as you do. If I could only got you to liavo a propcM- opinion of yourself — that is, believe tliat you are a bipirer man tban General Scott or George H. McClelian. I'd iiave some hopes of you."' '• We'll have one grand, big battle with the Seces- sionists now, pretty soon everything's getting ripe for it— and we'll whij) them like WcIlinLrton whijjped .\ajx)leon at Waterloo. Our regiment will cover it.self with glory, in which you and I will have a big shan*. Then we'll march back to Sardis with flags flying and drums beating, everylxxly turning out, and the bands l)laying ' See, the Concjuering Hero Comes.' when you and I come down the stnM't, and we'll be heroes for the rest of our natural livt-s." "Go ahead, and trll the rest of it to the mash-tub^ and tli<> -till. I've heanhas much as I can stand, and I must have a breath of fresh air. I'm going into the other cabin, to see what 's thore." Kent t'ollowiMl him to the door, with tiie Juir in his hand. "Kent, there's a man coming down that path there," .said Abe. pulling himself together, after the manner of a halfnlrunken man whose attention la pow- erfully attracted. "Where?" a.sked Kent, .setting the jug down with .solicitous gentleness, and reaching back for his musket. "There, by that big chestnut. Can't you .see him { or have you got so much whisky in you, that you can't see anything ? lie's in Rebel clothes, and he's got a gun. I'm going to shoot him." AN APPLK .TACK RAID. 173 ** Maybe he's one of these loyal Kentuckians. Hold on a minute, till you are sure," said Kent, half cockinir his own gun. "The last words of General Washinixton were ' Never, trust a nigger with a gun/ A man witli that kind o' cloze has no business carrying weapons around in this country. I'm going to shoot." "If you shoot with your hands wobbling lliat way, you'll make him as full of holes as a skimmer. That 'd be cruel. Steady yourself up a little, while I talk to him. '• Halt, tliere I " comiuandtMl Kent, with a lliick tongue. "Who are you, and how many are with you ( " " Tm a rnioii man," said Fortner, for it was he, "an' I'm alone." " Lay down your gun and come uj) here, if you are a friend," ordered Kent. The swaggering impcriousness in Ivlwards's lone nettled Fortner as much as the order itself. " I don't make a practice of layin' down my gun fur no man," he said proudly. "I'm ez good Union ez ary of you 'uns dar be, an' I don't take no orders from ye. I could've killed ye both, ef I'd a-wanted ter, afore 3'e ever seed me." Bolton's gun cracked, and the Ixdlei })nried itself in the thick, soft bark of the chestnut, just above Fortner's head, and threw dust and chips in his eyes. He bru>^hed them away angrily, and instinctively raised his rifle. Kent took this as his cue to fire, but his aim was even worse than A])e's. "Ruined again by strong drink," Ik; muttered 1 (4 TIIF- REP \roHN. despairin«rly, as he saw \\\o failure of hi- shot. " Xotliinix l)iit now apph^jack could make inc miss so fair a mark." *' Now, yo tVlh'is, hiy down //">/>' «nins ! " shouted Fortnor, sprinirin;,' forward to wlioro tliey .vcre. with his ritle co('k«'d. '* Lay 'om down I I say. Lay '»in down, or I'll let tlayliillit throiiLrh y<' ! " " Ilf 's jjot us, A I K'." said Kent, layini/ down his musket reluctantly. Ills example was followe f " '• It '11 certainly look like an overture to a perma- niMit and disintei*ested friendship," said Kent, hright- cninir up ; and Alx", who was gatherinir himself up for a spring to catch Fortner's rifle, let his nniscles rcia.x again. ••Well, ye kin take up yer guns agin and load cm." said Fortner, letting down the hammer of his ritle. •' I'm Jim Fortner. supposed ter be the pizen- est Union man on the Rocka-ssel I Come along ter my house, an' I'll gin ye a good meal o' vittels. Hit's on'y a little piece off, an' I 've got thar one of yer fellers. His name 's Harry Glen. Df THE HOSPITAL- 175 CHAPTER XIV. IN THE HOSPITAL. Am the tall uhlp wIiom lofty prora Slull never (tern the blUowa mora Deserted by her Ksllant band. Amid the breakers lies ast rand- Bo on hl» couch lay Khud.rlck Dhn. And oft his fevered limbs ho threw In toss abrupt, as when hi^r sides Lie rcK.-kln){ In the advnnchiK tide*. That shake lier frame with ceaseless beat, Vet c n not heave her from her seat ; — O, how unlike her cours*' on sea! Or his free step on hill and lea!— i>idy if the Lakt. AN Army Hospital is tiio vestibule of the Ceme- tery — the anteroom where the reeruiting-agents of Death — Wounds and Disease — assemble their con- scripts to prepare them for the ranks from which there is neither desertion nor discharge. Therein enter those who are to lay aside "this muddy vesture of decay," for the changeless garb of the Beyond. Thither troop the Wasted and Stricken to rest a little, and prepare for the last great journey, the lirst mile- stone of which is placed over their heads. Humanity and Science have done much for the Army Hospital, but still its swinging doors wave two to the tomb wliere they return one to health and activity. It was a broiling hot day when Rachel Bond descended from the ambulance which had brought her from the station to camp. 17^1 THE RKD ACORN. She shielded her eyes with a palm-leaf fan, and surveyed the surroundings of the post of duty to which she had been assi«xnod. She found herself in a little city of r()U-ups down by our old spring-house. I expect she's come down hero to find somebody that belongs to her that's sick. Don't I wish it was me I " "I wouldn't mind being a brother, or a cousin, or a sweetheart to her myself. That'd be better luck than to be given a sutler-shop. Just see her move ! She's got a purtier gait than our thorougbred colt." "It does one's eyes good to look at her. It makes me feel better than a cart-load of the stuft' that old Pillbags forces down our throats." " You're a-talking. She's a lad}' — every inch of her — genuine, simon-pure, fast colors, all-wool, a yard wide, as fine as silk, and bright as a May morn- ing." "And as wholesome as Spring sunshine." All unconscious that her appearance was to the M 178 THE RED ACORN. invalids who looked upon her like a sweet, health- giving breeze bursting through a tainted atmosphere, Rachel passed wearily along the burning Avalks to- ward the Surgeon's office, with a growing heart- sickness at the unwelcome appearance of the task she had elected for herself. The journey had been full of irritating discom- forts. Heat, dust, and soiled linen are only annoy- ances to a man ; they are real miseries to a woman. The marvel is not that ,Toan of Arc dared the perils of battle, but that she endured the continued wretch- edness of camp uncleanliness, to the triumphant end. With her throat parched, garments "sticky," hair, eyes, ears and nostrils filled with irritating dust, and a feeling that collar and cufis were, as ladies phrase it, "a sight to behold," Rachel's heroic enthu- siasm ebbed to the bottom. Ushered into the Sur- geon's office she was presented to a red-faced, harsh- eyed man, past the middle age, who neither rose nor apologized to her for being discovered in the undress of a hot day. He motioned her to a seat with the wave of the fan he was vigorously using, and taking her letter of introduction, adjusted eye-giasses upon a ripe-colored nose, and read it with a scowl that rip- pled his face with furrows. "So you're the first of the women nurses that's to be assigned to me," he said ungraciously, after finish- ing the letter, and scanning her severely for a mo- ment over the top of his glasses. " I suppose I have to have 'em." The manner hurt Rachel even more than tho IN THE HOSPITAL. 179 words. Before she could frame a reply he contin- ued: "I don't take much stock in this idea of women nurses, especially when they're young and pretty." He scowled at Rachel as if she had committed a crime in being young and beautiful. "But the coun- try's full of women with a Quixotic notion of being- Florence Nightingales, and they've badgered the Government into accepting their services. I suppose I'll have to take my share of them. Ever nursed ? " '' No, sir," responded Rachel, compressing as much haughtiness as possible into the answer. '* Of course not. Girls at your age are not at all likely to know anything that is useful, and least of all how to nurse a sick man. I hardly know which is the worst, a young one who don't know anything, or a middle-aged one who thinks she knows it all, and continually interferes with the management of a case. I believe though, I'd rather have had the middle-aged one to start with. She'd be more likely to tend to her business, and not have her head turned by the atten- tions of the good-looking young officers who swarm around her. Mind, I'll not allow any flirting here." Rachel's face crimsoned. " You forget yourself," she said, cuttingly; "or perhaps you have nothing to forget. At least, make an effort to remember that I'm a lady " The bristly eyebrows straightened down to a level line over the small blue eyes, and unpleasant furrows drew themselves around the corners of his mouth. " You forget," he said, " that if you enter upon these duties you are in the military service and subject to 180 THE RED ACORN. your superior officers. You forget the necessity of the most rigid discipline, and that it is my duty to explain and enforce this.'' "I certainly expect to ohvy orders," said Rachel, a little overawed. "You may rightly expect to," he answered with a slight sneer ; " because it will be a matter of neces- sity — you will have to. "We must have instant and unquestioning obedience to orders here, as well as everywhere else in the Army, or it would be like a rope of sand — of no strength whatever — no strength, whatever." "I know it," answered Rachel, depressed even more by the apparition of martial law than she had been before by the heat. '"And what I have been telling you is only the beginning," continued the Surgeon, noting the effect of his words, and exulting in their humbling power. "The cornerstone of everything military is obedi- ence — prompt, unfailing obedience, b}' everybody, soldier or officer, to his superiors. Without it " " Major Moxon," said an officer, entering and sa- luting, " the General presents his com})linients, and desires to know why his repeated orders in regard to the furloughing of men have been so persistently dis- regarded." "Because," said the Surgeon, getting pui-plish- red about the cheeks and nose, "because the matter's one which I consider outside of his province — beyond his control, sir. I am Chief of the Medical Depart- ment, as you are perhaps aware, sir." "We presumed that you were taking that view of IN THE HOSPITAL. 181 the matter, from your course," answered the Aide cahnly. " I am not here to argue the matter with you, but simply to direct you to consider yourself under arrest. Charges arc being prepared against you, to which I will add specifications based on this interview. Good afternoon, sir." The Aide saluted stiffly and moved away, leaving the Surgeon in a state of collapse at the prospect of what he had brought upon himself by his injudicious contumacy. Miss Rachel was in that state of wonderment that comes to pupils at seeing their teachers rc])el against their own precepts. The Surgeon was too much en- grossed in his own affairs to pay farther heed to her. He tapped a bell. "Orderly," he said, to the soldier who responded, "conduct this young woman to Dr. Denslow. In- form him that she is to be with us as a nurse, and ask him to be kind enough to assign her suitable quarters. Good afternoon, ma'am." In another office, much smaller and far less luxu- riously furnished, she found Dr. Denslow, a hazel- eyed, brown-bearded man of thirty, whose shoulder- straps bore the modest bars of a Captain. The reader has already made his acquaintance. He re- ceived her with the pleasant, manly sympathy for her sex, which had already made him one of the most pop- ular of family physicians in the city where he was practicing at the outl^reak of the war. Rachel's depressed spirits rose again at his cordial reception. "I am so busy," he said, after a brief exchange of commonplaces, "that I'll not have the time to give 182 THE RED ACORN. you much information thir? afternoon as to your duties, and I know that you are so fatigued with your jour- ne}^ and tlie heat that you will not care to do any- thing but rest and refresh yourself. I will therefore show you immediately to your quarters." "This will be your field of labor," he said, as he led her down the long aisle between rows of cots to- ward her room. "It's not a cheerful one to contem- plate at first. Human suffering is always a depressing spectacle, and you will see here more of it and more varied agony than you can find anywhere outside of an army hospital's walls. But as the deed is so is the duty, and the glory of doing it. To one who wants to serve God and his fellow-creatures — which I take it is the highest form of religion — here is an oppor- tunity that he may bless God for giving him. Here he can earn a brighter cn-own than is given them who die at the stake for o})ini()n's sake." So earnest was his enthusiasm that Rachel felt her- self lifted up by it, in spite of her discomforts. But then she turned her eyes away from his impassioned face, and looked over the array of white beds, each with its pale and haggard occupant, his eyes blazing with the delirium of fever, or closed in the langor of exhaustion, with limbs tossing as the febrile fire seethed the blood, or quivering with the last agonies. Groans, prayers, and not a few oaths fell on her ears. The repulsive smell of the disinfectants, the nausea- ting odor of the sick room where hundreds of invalids were lying, the horrible effluvia of the typhus rose on the hot air, and seemed part of the misery which so strongly assailed her other senses. IN THE HOSPITAL. 183 She was sick at heart, and with every feeling in active revolt, but without a word she turned and fol- lowed Dr. Denslow to a hot, close, little room which had been cut off one end of the hospital, though not so separated from it but that the sounds and odors from the sick wards continually filtered in through the wide cracks in its plank sides. An iron bedstead, of the same pattern as that upon which the sick lay, stood in one corner, and in another was a rudely-fashioned stand, upon which was a tin-basin, a cake of yellow ])ar-soap, and a bucket of water for washing. This was all the furniture. As the door closed behind the Doctor, Rachel threw herself upon the cot, in a fit of despair at the wreck of all her fancies, and the repulsiveness of the career upon which she had embarked. "I can not — I will not — live here a week," she said to herself, over and over again. "I will die for the lack of the comforts — of the decencies of life, even — to say nothing of being poisoned b}' these hor- rible smells, or driven distracted by the raving sick and that boor of a Surgeon. But I can not draw back ; I would rather die than go back to Sardis with a confession of failure at the very outset of my at- tempt to play the heroine."" Then she remembered her last words to Harry Glen : "I only know that you have failed where a number of commonplace men have succeeded, and that is sufficient." Would she subject herself to having him throw these words in her teeth ? No. Any shape of trial and death, rather. 184 THE RED ACORN. CHAPTER XV. MAKING AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH DUTY. And with light In her looks she entered the chnmber of slcknesa. Noiselessly moved about the assiduous, careful attendants, Moistening the feverish lip, and the aching brow, and In silence Closing the sightless eyes of the d-'ad. and conccallnB their faces, Where oa their pallets they lay like drifts of snow by the roadside. Many a languid head upraised ns Ev;ingclln«' entered. Turned on Its pillow of pain to gaze while she passed for her presence Fell on their hearts like a ray of sun on the walls of a prison. And as she looked around she saw how Death the Consoler, Laying his hand on many a heart had healed It forever.— Eeanffeltru. NERVOUSLY bolting the rude door after Dr. Dcnslow's departure, Rachel tossed her hat into one corner, and without farther undressinir flung her- self down upon the coarse l)lankets of the cot, in utter exhaustion of mind and l)ody. Nature, i)eneticent ever to Youth and Health, at once drew the kindly curtain of Sleep, and the world and its woes became oblivion. Early the next morn ins: the shrill reveille called for a resumption of the day's activities. She was awakened by the fifes screaming a strenuously cheer- ful jig, but lay for .some minutes without opening her eyes. She was so perfectly healthful in every way that the tribulations of the previous day had left no other traces than a slight weariness. But everysen.se began informing her that yesterday's experience was not a nightmare of her sleep, but a waking reality. The morning sun was already pouring hot beams MAKING AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH DUTY. 185 upon the thin roof over her head. Through the wide cracks in the partition came the groans and the nau- seating odors which htid depressed her so on the day before. Mingled witlj these was the smell of spoiled coffee and ill-cooked food floating in from the kitchen, where a detail of slovenly and untaught cooks were preparing breakfast. She shuddered and opened her eyes. The rude garniture of her room, thickly covered with coarse dust, and destitute of everything to make life comfortable, looked even more repugna^it than it had the evening before. The att:u-k of sickness at heart at the position in which she found herself came on with renewed inten- .sity, for the hatefulness of everything connected with the lot she had chosen seemed to have augmented during the passing hours. She tried to gain a IKtle respite by throwing one white arm over her eyes, so as to shut out all sight, that she might imagine for a moment at least that she was back under the old apple tree at Sardis, before all this sorrow had come into her life. "It is not possible," she murmured to herself, "that Florence Nightingale, and those who assisted her found their work and its surroundings as unlovely as it is here. I won't believe it. In Europe things are different, and the hospitals are made fitting places for women to visit and dwell in." It would have helped her much if she could have known that the Crimean hospitals, in which Florence Nightingale won world-wide fame, lacked immeasur- ably of the conveniences and comforts with which 186 THE KED ACOKN. American ingenuity and lavish generosity mitigated somewhat the wretchedness of army hospitals. Lving still becoming unendurable, she rose, in hopes that action might bring some sort of relief. Such plain toilet was made as the very limited means at her command permitted. The scant privacy af- forded by her room was another torture. ^Maiden modesty suggested a Peeping Tom at every yawning crack in the planking. At last, neatly attired in a serviceal)le gray frock, with a dainty white collar at her throat, and her sat- in}' hair brushed smoothly over her forehead, she opened her door and stepped out into the main ward rooni. A murnuu- of admiration arose from those wh« looked ui)on her, and the sick cesised groaning, to feast their eyes upon -the fiiir, fresh apparition of sweet young womanhood. There was such unmis- takable pleasure written on every face that for a mo- ment even .she herself became a little conscious that her presence was like a grateful shower upon a parched and weary land. But before she could buoy her spirits up with this knowledge they sank again as she perceived Dr. ^lo.xon stalking down the long aisle, with ill-humor expressed in every motion of his bulky figure. He was frowning deeply ; his great feet fell flatly upon the creaking planks, as if he were crushing something at every step, and he rated the occupants of the cots on either side as he passed along. "No. 4," he said sharply to a gaunt boy, whose cheeks were burning with rising fever, ''you've got MAKING AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH DUTY. 187 a relapse. Serv^es you right for leaving your bed yesterday. Now don't deny it, for I saw you outside myself. I'll send the "Wardniaster to the guard-house for that." "But, Doctor, it wasn't his fault," gasped the sick man, painfully. "I begged so hard to go out that he couldn't refuse me. It was so hot in here and smellcd so badl}^ that I felt I should die unless I got a breath of fresh air." " Silence ! " thundered the Surgeon ; "I'll have no talking back to me. Steward, send that Wardmaster to the guard-house for disobedience of orders. No. 7, you refused to take your medicine yesterday. Steward, double his prescription, and if he shows the least resistance to taking it, have the nurses hold him and force it down his throat. Do you hear? There, why don't you hold still? " (This to a man who was having a large blister applied to his back.) •'It hurts so," answered the sufferer. "Hurts, eh? Well, I'll show you what hurts some of these days, when I cut your leg ofi'. Well, what do you want, youngster ? " A slender, white-faced boy was standing at the foot of his cot, at "attention,'' and saluting respectfully. "If you please," said he, "I'd like to be dis- charged, and go back to my company. I'm well enough now to do duty, and I'll be entirely well in a short time, if I can get out of doors into the fresh air." "Indeed," answered Dr. Moxon, with a sneer, "may I inquire wdien you began to diagnose cases, and offer advice to your superior officers? Why 188 THE RED ACORN. don't you set up in the practice of medicine at once, and appl}- for a commission as Surgeon in the Army i Step back, and don't ever speak to me again in this manner, or it '11 l)e the worse for you, I can tell ^'ou. / know when you are tit to go hack to duty, and I won't have patients anno3'ing me with their whims and fancies. Step back, sir.'' Thus he passed along, leaving anger and humilia- tion behind him, as a steamer leaves a wake of waves beaten into a froth. "Old Sawbones made a mistake with his morning cocktail, and mi.xed a lot of wormwood with it," said one of the ••convalescents^" in an undertone to those about him. "This awful hot weather's spilin' most every- thing." said anotlu'r, "and the old man's tem})er never was any too sweVt." Dr. Moxon came up to Kaciiel, and regarded her for an instant very unpleasantly. "Young woman," he said in a harsh tone and with a >till harsher man- ner, "the rules of this institution reciuire every attendant to be present at morning roll-call, under pain of punishment. You were not present this morning, but be careful that you are in future.'' Kachel's grief over her own situation had been swallowed up by indignation at the Surgeon's brutal- it}' to others. All her higher instincts were on tire at the gratuitous insults to boys, toward whom her wo- manly sympathies streamed out. The pugnacious element, large in hers as in all strong natures, asserted itself and invited to the fray. If there was no one else to resist this petty tyrant she would, and may- MAKING AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH DUTY. 189 hap in this she might tind such exercise of her heroic qualities that she felt were within her, as would justify herself in her own esteem. She met with a resolute glance his peevish eyes, and said : "When the rules are communicated to me in a proper manner, I shall take care to obey them, if the\'^ are just and proper ; but I will not be spoken to in that way by any man.'' His eyes fell from the encounter with hers, and tlie dull mottle on his cheek became crimson witli a l)lush at this, assertion of outraged womanl}- dignity. He turned away, saying gruffly : "Just as I expected. The moment a woman comes into the hospital, all discipline is at an end." He moved oft" angrily. All the inmates saw and overheard. If Rachel's refreshing beauty had capti- vated them before, her dauntless spirit completed the conquest. A cheery voice behind her said " Good morning." There was something so winning in its tones that the set lines in her indignant face relaxed, and she turned softened eyes to meet the frankly genial ones of Dr. Paul Denslow. " Good morning, Miss ^," he repeated, as she hesitated, a little dazed. " Bond — Rachel Bond's my name. Good morning, sir,*' she answered, putting out her hand. As he took it, he said : " I want to make an abject apology. We are ill-prepared to entertain a lady here, and no one knew of your coming. But we cer- tainly intended to mitigate in some degree the deso- 190 THE RED ACORN. lation of the room to which you were conducted. I left you for the purpose of seeing what the store- room contained tliat would contribute a trifle toward transforming it into a maiden's Ijoucr — " ''Cindert'lia'-; fairy godmother couldn't have made the transformation with tliat room," she said willi a little shrug of despair. ''Probably not —probably not— and I lay no claim to evi'u the least of the powers exercised l)y the old lady with the wand. Biit I allow no man to surpass me in the matter of good intentions. Tliat is a lux- ury of wliich the poorest of us can afford an abun- dance, and I will not deny myself anything that is so cheap." Rachel was beguiled inti) t^miling at his merry cynicism. ''Allusions to the pavement in the unmentionable place are barred in this connection," he continued gayly. ''On my way to carry out the.se good inten- tention.s — at some one else's expense, remember, all the time — I was called to the bedside of a dying man, and detained there some time. "When I at last re turned to your room, I jue made more endurable than it seems to be possible now." MAKING AX ACQUAINTANCE WITH DUTY. 197 "I do hope none of this has been taken away from any sick man who needs it more than I ? " said Ra- chel, with a remembrance of how much the boys in the ward needed. "•Do not disturb yourself with any such thought. Your comfort has not l)een bought at the expense of any one else's. I would not give, even to you, any- liiing that would help restore a sick soldier to his reg- iment or his home. My first duty, as that of yours and all of us, is to him. He is the man of the occa- sion. All the rest of us are mere adjuncts to him. We have no reason for being, except to increase his etfectiveness."" The earnestness with which he spoke, so diflferent fiom his light bantering at the breakfast table, made her regard him more attentively. " I begin to get a glimmering," she said at length, "of the inspiration in this kind of work. Before it has all seemed unutteral)ly repulsive to me. But it has its rewards."' "Yes," said he, lapsing still deeper into a mood which she soon came to recognize in him as a frequent one of spiritual exaltation, "we who toil here, lal)or amidst the wreck and ruin of war without the benefit of that stirring impulse which fills the souls of those who actually go into battle. The terrors of human surtering which they see but for an instant, as when the lio^htning in the niorht shows the ravages of the storm, encompass us about and abide with us continually. We are called upon for another kind of fortitude, and we must look for our reward other- wise than in the victor's laurels. We can only have 198 THK RED ACORN. to animate us our own consciousness of a high duty well done. To one class of minds this is an infinitely rich meed. The old Jewish legend says tliat Abra- ham's principal jewel was one worn upon hi.s breast, •• whose lisrht raised those who were bowed down, and Iicaled the sick,' and when he passed from earth it was placed in heaven, where it shone ;is one of the great stars. Of sucIj kind nmst be oui- jewel." He stopped, and bbisliing through his beard, as if ashamed of his heroics, said witii a liglit laugh : "But if there is anything I fear it is self-righteous- ness which cankereth the soul. Come ; I will show you a sight which will repress any tendency you may ever feel to exalt your services to the pinnacle of hu- man merit." Wiiile leading her to a remote part of the hospital he continued : '• Of course greater love hath no man than this, that he give his life for that which he loves. Considered relatively to the person the peasant who falls in the defense of his country gives just as much as the Emperor who may die by his side. In either case the measure of devotion is brim-full. Nothing more can be added to it. But there are accessories and surroundings which apparently make one life of much gi-eater value than another, and make it a vastly richer sacrifice when laid on the altar of patriot- ism." "There are certainly degrees of merit, even in yielding up one's life," said Rachel, not altogether unmindful of the sacrifice she herself had made in coming to the front. " Judsred bvthis stnndnrd." the Doctor continued, MAKING AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH DUTY. 100 "the younir man whom we are about to see has made a richer oftering to his country than it is possible for most men to make. It almost shames me as to the meagerness of the gift I bring." "If you be ashamed how must others who give much less feel ? " " He was in the first dawn of manhood." the Doc- tor went on, without noticing the interruption, "'hand- some as a heathen god, educated and wealthy, and with high aspirations for a distinguished scientific ciireer fermenting in his young blood like new wine. Yet he turned his back upon all this — upon the open- ing of a happy married life — to carry a private sol- dier's nuisket in the ranks, and to die ingloriously by the shot of a skulking bushwhacker. He would not even take a conuuission, because he wanted that used to encourage some other man, who might need the inducement.'" " But why call his death inglorious? If a man braves death why is any one time or place worse than another ? " "Because for a man of his temperament he is dying the cruellest death possible. He had expected, if called upon to yield up his life, to i)urchase with it some great good for his country. But to perish use- lessly as he is doing, as if bitten by a snake, is terri- ble. Here we are. I will tell you before we go in that he has a bullet wound through the body, just grazing an artery and it is only a question of a short time, and the slightest shock, when a fatal hemorr- hage will ensue. Be very quiet and careful." He untied a rope stretched across the entrance to 2U0 TIIK KED A('(JKN. a little wing of the buildiiiir to keej) unnecessary foot- steps at a distance. " How is he this morninfj: '." he asked of a fjrav- haired nurse seated in front of a door curtained witii a blanket. ••(^uiet and cheerful as ever." answcn'(l the nur>c, risin<; and puUiiii,^ the l)hiiikcl aside tliat they might enter. The face upon which KacheKs eyes fell when she entered the room imi)ressed her as an unusual combi- nation of refinement ano nmch i)ettcr that you should do it than Dr. Donslow. even, errand as he is in every way. You will tell her that there was not a thought of repining — that I felt that giving my life was only partial repayment to those who gave theii*s to pur- chase for me every good thing that I have enjoyed. I had twenty-tive years of as happy a life as ever a man lived, and she came as its crowning joy. I look for ward almost eagerly to what that Power, which has made every succeeding year of my life happier than the previous one, has in store for me in the awakening beyond. Ah, see there I It has come. There goes my life." She looked in the direction of his gaze, and saw a pool of blood slowly spreading out fnmi under the bed, banking itself against the dust into miniature gulfs and seius. The hand that held hers relaxed, and looking around she saw his eyes closed as if in peace- ful sleep. Dr. Denslow entered while she still gazed on the dead face, and said : "I am so sorry I left you alone. I did not expect this for some hours. " " How petty and selfish all my life has been," said Rachel, dejectedly, as they left the room. MAKING AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH DUTY. 208 "Not a particle more than his was, probably," said Dr. Denslow, ''until his opportunity came. It is opportunity that makes the hero, as well as the less reputable personage, and I have no doubt that when yours comes, you will redeem yourself from all blame of selfishness and pettiness. " 204 TUE RED ACORN. CHAPTER XVI. THE AMBUSCADE. This bcaryhcaded rcvrl, cut and wrst. Makes ui tnitliu-id and taxed uf other nailona; They clop«- u*driinkardK, nnd with swInlaU fras^ Boil our addlilon: nnd Indi id It takrn From our achievements. tliuuKli pcrfunuedat bight. The pith and marrow of our attribute.— //amtet. THE day sjicnt witli Aunt D('l)hy liad boon of tlio t Ittiictil to Hanv (rlon. Sinco his pait- infj with Kaciu'l Bond, tlu'ic had Ix-on «r<>in«; on in his spirit a fcrnu'ntation like that witli whicli «rood wine discharges itself of its crossness and iinpiiritic's, and becomes clear and line. In this process had vanished the al)sorbin«r seltishness of a n)ucli-induliCADE. 207 "I'll clean hit up for ye," she said to Harry, as she saw Fortner beginning to furbish up his own rifle for the next day's duties. That she was no stranger to the work was shown by the skill with which she addressed herself to it. Nothing that a Kentucky mountaineer does has more of the aspect of a labor of love, than his caring for a fine rifle, and any of them would have been put to shame by the deftness of Aunt Debby's supple hands. Removing the leathern hood which protected the lock, she carefully rubbed off* the hannnor and nipple with a wisp of soft tine tow, and picked out the tube with a needle. Wrapping another bit of tow around the end of a wiping-stick, she moistened it slightly in her mouth, and carefully swabbed out of the inside of the barrel every suspicion of dust and dirt. Each of the winding rifles was made clean and free along its whole course. Then the tow swab was lightly touched with sweet, unsalted goose-fat, that it might spread a rust-preventing film over the interior surface. She burnished the silver and l)rass ornaments, and rubbed the polished stock until it shone. When not a suspi- cion of soil or dirt remained any where, the delicate double triggers were examined and set so that they would yield at the stroke of a hair, a tuft of lightly- oiled tow was placed over the nipple and another closed the muzzle. "Thar," said Aunt Debby, setting the gun back against the logs, " is a rifle that '11 allers do hits dut}^ ef the man a-holt of hit does his. Let's see how the ammunition is." The powder horn was found to be well filled with 20S THE KKl) AfORN. powdor. and the l)ox witli cn\)>, hut there were only a few bullets. "I'll run ye some." she said, takin": from a shelf a small iron ladle, a few hars of lead, and a \rMr of hulh't molds. "Fur more'n a hundred y«'ars the wo- men uv our f:un*iy hcv run all tlir liiillrt< our men- folksshol. TIm'v h'lioved hit made 'em huky. (iran- father Foitnci- killed an Injun chief aerost the Mau- mee River at tin- battle of Fallen Timbcis with a bullet thct Granmother bed run fur him an' markt with a little cross. Afore the battle lu'L'un (iran- father tuck the bullet outen his pouch an' put hit inter his mouth, until he could prit a chance ter use hit on biix iram*'. He brot the chiefs scalp hum ter Granmother." " I believe the bullets you cast for me will do jjood service," said Harry, with sincerity in his tonc<. " I'm sartin of hit," she returned, confidently. "I hev adopted ye in my heart ez a son, an' I feel to wards ye ez ef ye were raylly uv my own kin. I know ye'U be a credit to yerself an' me." While the lead was meltinfr upon the bed of coals she drew out on the hearth, she sat in her low chair with her hands clasped about her knees, and her great gray eyes fixed upon the depths of a ma.ss of glowing embers in the fireplace, as if .she saw there vivid pic- tures of the past or revelations of the future. "How wonderfully bright an' glowin' hit is in thar," she said musingly ; " hit's purer an' brighter then ennything else on arth. 'Purified ez by fire,' the Book says. My God, Thou has sent Thy fires THE AMBUSCADE. 200 upon me ez a sweepin' flood. Hev they purified me ez Thou wisht ? How hit shines an' glows away in thar! Hit seems so deep sometimes thet I kin skeercely see the eend. A million times purer an' brighter is the light thet shines from the Throne uv God. They're lookin' at thet now, while I still tarry hcah. Husband an' son, when will I go to ye? When will I finish the work the Lord hez fur me ter do ? When will the day uv my freedom come ? May- be to-morrer — may-be to-morrer." She began singing softly : " An' when a shadder falls acrost the winder Of my room, When I am workiu' my app'inted task, I lift my head to watch the door an' ask If lie is come; An' the angel answers sweetly In my home: ' Only a few more shadders An" He will come.'" *' Aunt Debby, honey," said Fortner, rousing himself from a nap in his chair, "thet thar lead's burnin'. Better run yer bullets." She started as if waked from a trance, pressed her slender thin hands to her eyes for an instant, and- then taking the molds up in her left hand she raised the ladle with her right, filled them from it, knocked the molded balls out by a tap on the floor, and repeated the process with such dexterous quickness that she had made fifty bullets before Harry realized that she was fairly at work. 210 THE RED ACORN. '' Ye men hed better lay down an' git some sleep," she said, as she replaced the molds and ladle on the shelf. '' Ye'll need all yer strennfth to-morrer. Til neck these bullets, an' git togctiier some vittles fur the trip, an' then I'll lay down a while. We orter start airly — soon arter daybreak." They did start early the next mornino:, with Aunt Debby riding upon the roads that wound around the mountain sides, while Fortner led the men through the shorter by-paths. Noon had passed some hours, and yet they had comea(ross no signs of wagons. Aunt Debby was riding along a road cut out of the rocks about mid- way up the mountain. To her right the descent was almost peq^endiiular for a hundred feet or more to where a creek ran at the bottom of a cliff. To her left the hill rose up !«teeply to a great bight. Fort- ner and the others were threading their way through the brush some distance above her, and keej)ing her in view as well as the bushes and trees would permit. Suddenlv there amse from the road the sound of rral- loping hoofs. L#eaning forward to get a better view Fortner and the others saw Aunt Dol)by galloping back, waving the red handkerchief which was her sig- nal of the approach of a wagon. After her galloped a Rebel Sergeant, with revolver drawn shouting to her to stop or he would fire. Abe Bolton stepped forward impulsively to shoot the Rebel, missed his footing, and slid down the hill, landing in the road with such force as to jar into unintelligibility a bitter imprecation he had constructed for the emergency. lie struck in front of the Sergeant, who instantly fired THE AMBUSCADE. 211 at Aunt Debby's mare, sending a bullet through the faithful animal, which sank to her knees, and threw her rider to the ground. Without waitinsf to rise, and he wits not certain that he could, Abe fired his musket, l)ut missed both man and horse. He scrani- l)led*to his feet, and ran furiously at the Rebel with raised gun. The Sergeant fired wildly at him, when liolton struck the animal a violent blow across the head. It recoiled, slii)ped, and in another instant had fallen over the side of the road, and crushed his rider on the rocks below. Five of the wagon-guard who were riding ahead of the wagon gallojicd forward at the sound of the shots. Fortner, Edwards and Harry Glen fired into these, and three saddles were emptied. The remaining two men whirled their horses around, tired wildly into the air, and dashed back upon the plunging team, with which the driver was vainly struggling. The ground quivered as the frightened animals struck together; they were crushed back upon their haunches, and beat one another cruelly with their mighty hoofs. Wagon, horses and men reeled on the brink an agonizing instant ; the white-faced driver dropped the lines and sprang to the secure ground ; the riders strained with the energy of deadly fear to tear themselves loose from their steeds, but in vain. Then the frantic mass crashed down the jagged rocks, tearing up the stunted cedars as if they were weeds, and fell with a sounding splash on the lime- stone bed of the shallow creek. Fortner, Glen, and Edwards came down as quickly as possible, the latter spraining his ankle badly by making a venturesome leap to reach the road first. 212 THE RED ACORN. The\' found the man that Fortner liad shot at stone dead, with a bullet through his temple. The other two had been struck in the body. Their horses stood near, looking wonderingly at their prostrate mas- ters. Bolton was rubbing his bruises and abrasions, and vitui)erating everything, from the conduct of the war to tlie steepness of Kentucky mountains. Aunt Debby had partially recovere«l from the stunning of her fall, and limped slowly up, with her long riding- skirt raised by one hand. Her lips were compressed, and iier great gray eyes blazed with excitement. Tliey all went to the side of the road, and looked down at the crushed and bleeding mass in the creek. "My Gcxl I that's awful," said Harry, with a rising sickness a]>out his heart, as the excitement be- gan subsiding. ''Plenty good enuf fur -touiKlrcI^ who rob poor men of all they hev," said Fortner fiercely, as he re- loadecl his rifle. " Hit's not bad enuf fur thieves an' robbers." " Hit's God's judgment on the wicked an' the op- pressor,'' said Aunt Debby, with solemn pitiless- ness. "Hadn't we better try to get down tiiere, and lielp those men out ?" suggested Harry. "Perhaps they are not dead yet." *' Aunt Debby, thet thar boss thet's raisin' his head an' whinny in'," said Fortner, with sudden interest, "is Joel Spriggs's roan geldin', sho's yore bo'n, honey." He pointed to where a shapely head was raised, and almost human agony looked out of great THE AMBUSCADE 213 liquid eyes. "Thetwuz the finest hoss in Laurel County, an' they've stole "im from Joel. HitUl 'bout break his heart, fur he set a powerful sight o' store on thet ere beast. Pore critter I hit makes me sick ter see 'im suffer thet-a-way ! I've a mind ter put 'im outen his misery, but I'm afcercd I can't shoot 'im, so long ez he looks at me with them big pitiful eyes o' his'n. They go right ter my heart." *' You'd better shoot him,'' urged Aunt Debby. "Hit's a sin ter let an innercent critter suffer thet-a- way." Fortncr raised his rifie, and sent a bullet through the mangled brute's brain. Aunt Dcbby's eyes became fixed on a point where, a mile away down the mountain, a bend in the road was visil)Ie through an opening in the trees. **Look out," she said, as the echoes of the shot died away, " thar comes a hull lot on 'em." They looked and saw plainly a large squad of cav- alry, with a wagon behind. "We must get outen hcah, an' thet quick," said Forlner decisively. He caught one of the horses, and shortened a stirrup to make the saddle answer for a side-saddle. " Heah, Aunt Debby, let me help ye up, honey. Now Bolton and Edwards, I'll help ye on these ere other critters. Now skeet out ez fast ez the bosses' legs will tote ye. Don't spar 'em a mite. Them fellers'll gin ye the devil's own chase ez soon ez they git heah, an' see what's bin done. Glen and me'll go acrost the mounting, an' head 'em off on t'other side. Don't come back ef ye heah shootin', but keep straight on, fur we kin take keer o' this 914 THE RED ACORN. crowd without enny help. Glon, you sasshay up the mounting thar ez fast ez the Lord'H let ye. Til bo arter ye right spry." All sped away as directed. Fortnor had i)eon loading his gun while speaking. He now rammed the bullet h()m(\ and withdrawing his rammer walked over to the elirt* beside whieh the teamster was cowering. "O, Mister Fortner. don't kill me— plejtsc don't I " whined the luckless man, getting awkwardly uj)(>n iiis knees, and raising his hands implorinirly. '• I sw.ii- ter God I'll never raise a hajid agin a Union man agin ef ye'll only spar my life." "Kill ye, Pete Iloskins ! " said Fortner with un- fathomable contempt. '' What consetc ye hev ter think yer wuth the powder an' lead. I hain't no l)ul- lots ter waste on caiT'on." He struck the abject fellow a couple of stinginir blows on the face with the ramrod, replaced it in the thimbles, and sprang up the rocks just as the head of the cavalry appeared around the bend of the road a few rods away. Overtaking Harry shortly, he heard about the same time the Rebels on the road below strike into a trot. ''They know hit all now," he said, "an' hev started in chase. Let's jog on lively, an' get ter whar we kin head 'em off." Night had fallen in the meantime, but the full moon had risen immediately, making it almost as light as day. After half an hour's fast walking, the two Union- ists hah-yellow eyes burn in the pitchy depths and steadily draw nearer him. They entered the laurel thicket, and the beast gr()wlelMrted out i My eyes have been opened to my own igno- rance. I used to have the conceit that we two eonld )»Iay a f lir hand at any «rame of war they eoiild «jfet up for onr ent«'rtainment. But the.se Kenluekians ^tarted to make an inventory of its contents. A portly jug of applejack was kept at hand, that there might not be any sutfering from undue thirst during the course of the operation, which, as Kent provi- dently remarked, was liable to make a man as dry as an Arizona plain. The danger of such aridity seemed to grow more imminent continually, judged by the frequency of their applications to the jug. It soon became more urgent than the completion of the inventory. Fre- quent visits of loyal Kentuckians with other jugs and bottles, to drink to the renewed supremacy of the Banner of Beauty and Glory, did not diminish Kent's and Abe's apprehensions of ultimate thirst. Their clay seemed like some other kinds, which have their absorptive powers strengthened by the more they take up. They belonged to a not-unusual class of men whom it takes about as long to get thoroughly P 226 THE RED ACORN. drunk as it does to lu-at y\\) an iron-furnace, hut the condition tliat thoy aciiiove then makes the intoxica- tion of other and ordinary men seem a very mild and tame exhilaration. By noon the next day this process was nearing its completion. A mes.senger gallojwd into town with the information that the Union forces were coming, and would arrive in the course of an hour or two. "Shjishso!'" said Kent, straightening himself uj) with a crushing dignity that always formed a sure gauge of the extent to which inehriation had pro- gressed. " Sha^h so ^ Troop-^ 'she United Shtates 'l)()ut to enter shis lovely metropolis wish all pomp and shircumshtance 'rea.ssherted 'thority. 'Shton- ishin' event ; wonderful 'casion. Never happenecl 'fore ; prohably never'll happen again. Ought to be 'propriately celebrated, Abe I" That gentleman made a strong effort to control joints which seemed unmanageable, and .succeeded in assuming a tolerable erectness, while he blinked at his companion with stolid gravity. '• Abe, shis ish great 'casion. Greatest in she an- nalsh of she country. We're only represhentatives Government in she town. Burden whole shing fallsh on us. Undersbtand i AVe musht do every.shing. Undershtnnd ( Country 'spects every man to do his (bity. Undersbtand ? Abe sank down on a bench, leaned his head against the wall, and looked at his companion with one eye closed wearily. "Yesshir," Kent resumed, summoning up a new THE AMBUSCADE. 227 supply of oratorical energy, and an official gravity beneath which his legs trembled. *' Name shis town's London. Shame name's big town 'cross ocean. Lots history c'nected wish name. Shtacks an' cords of it. Old times when King wanted t'come t' s'own 'gain Lord Mayor went out t'meet him, wish shtyle piled on bigger'n a hayshtack. Fact. Clothes tiner'n a peacock. Tendered him keys, freed'm city. All shat short shing. Ver' inipreshive shpcctacle. Ev- erybody felt bctter'n for imi)rovin' sight. Undcr- shtand ? We'll be Lord Mayor and train for shis London. We can rig out right here. Onr trous- seau's here in shis hair trunk." ''Shall we get anyshing t' drink?" inquired Abe, making a temporary collection of his wits with a vio- lent etibrt. '•Abe I" the freezing severity of Kent's tone and manner would have been hopelessly fatal to early veg- etables. " Abe you've many good qualities— more of 'em shan any man I know. But a degrading passion fur shtrong drink is ruinin' you. I'm your besht fren, an' shay it wish tearsh in m' eyes. Lemme beg o' you t' reform ere it ish too late. Beware of it, my fren, beware of it. It shtingeth like a serpent, an' biteth like a multiplier — 1 mean an adder. You haven't got my shuperb self-control, an' so yer only shafety lies in total abstinence. Cheese it, my fren, cheese it on she sheductive but fatal lush." "Are we goin' out t' meet she boysh ? " inquired Abe. "Shortainly we arc. Yesshir. An' we're goin' out ash I proposed. Yer a shplendid feller, Abe," f88 TIIE RED ACORN. continued Kent, with lofty patronage. ''A shplen- did fcUcr, an' do great credit t' yer 'portunitios. But y' haven't had my Mvantages of mingling constantly in p'lite s'ciety, y" know. Rough diamond, I know, 'nail that short o' .shing, but lack polish an' easy grace. So Fll be th' Lord Mayor, an' y'll be th' train. Undershtand ? " He lurched forward, and came near falling over the chair, but recovering he stitfcned up and gazed on that useful article of furniture with a sternness that implied his belief that it was a rascally blackleg try- ing to insinuate itself into the circle of refinement and chaste elegance of which he was the particular orna- ment. ''Come," he resumed, "le's bedizen ourselves; le's assume th' shplendor 'projiriate t* th* "cation." When the troops inarched in in the afternoon, they encountered at the head of the crowd that met them at the crossing of the creek just outside of town, a man who seemed filled with deep emotion, and clothed with strange fancies. He wore a tall silk hat of anticjue pattern, carefully brushed, which he pro- tected from the rays of the sun with a huge blue cot- ton umbrella. A blue broadcloth coat, with gilt but- tons, sat jauntily over a black satin vest, and nankeen trousei-s. A pair of gold spectacles reposed in mag- isterial dignity about half way down his no.se, and a lame >ilver-headed cane in the left hand balanced the umbrella in the right By the .side of the man with rare vestments stood another figure of even more limpness of general bearing, who.se garb consisted of a soldier's uniform pantaloons and woolen shirt — THE ambl:*cai)E. 229 none too clean — set otf by a black dress-coat, and white linen vest. As the head of the column came up he in the blue broadcloth pulled ofl' his hat and spectacles, and ad- dressed himself to speech : ''Allow me, shir, to welcome you with hoshpita- ble hands to a bloody — no, let me tender you, shir, the liberties of our city, and reshoice shat she old banner which has braved she battle, hash "" The column had stf)pped, and the Captain com- manding the advance was listening patiently to what he supposed was the address of an enthusiastic, but eccentric old Kentuckian, when one of the sharp-eyed ones in the company shouted out : ''I declare, it's Kent Edwards and Abe Bolton." The yell of laughter and ai)i)lausc at the ludicrous mas'-' -'"^h trans- formed the man into one in whose brain and hand slept many possibilities that were liable to awaken at t.aying this fact by .singling him out as the recipient of many Imie attentions somewhat more special than those she bestowed on others. wnrd" f""" ""7, '!""''• "'■'"" '•^ *<> -""^^d "bout the ward she would in turning discover his eyes fixed study After awhile the study seemed to show that It had been satisfactory, and one d.ay, when the Sur- geon had informed him that he w.as now in a condi- L'llrCU : '"'' ^^'^"^™" '" '-' «' '" "o -' "Kin I speak ter ye a moment in private. Miss?" Certamly,"she replied. "Come right in here." 256 THE RED ACORN. Entering the room he closed the door behind them, and made a minute survej' of the windows, and other points of vantage for eavesdroppers. This done, he returned to where Rachel was watching his operations with much curiosit}', and said : " Let's set down. I guess no one'll overhear us, ef we're keerful. '' Hev ye enn\^ idee who I am ? " he asked ab- ruptly, as they sat down on one of the rude benches with which the room was furnished. "Not the slightest,'' she answered, "except that you appear on tlie roll as 'James Brown, No. 23,' no company or regiment given." "Very good. D'ye reckon thet enny o' them in thar hev ? " — pointing over his shoulder with his thumb to the ward. ''Of course I can 'not tell as to that. I never hear them say anything about you. They seem to think that you are one of the loyal East Tennesseeans that are pretty plentiful about here." "I've bin afeered fur the last few days that some uv 'em were Rebels in disguise, an' thet they sort o' suspicioned me. I hev seed two on 'em eyein' me mouty hard. One has a red head, an' 'tother a long black beard. " "I can perhaps .set your anxiety at rest on that score. They are Southerners, but loyal ones. They were forced into the Rebel army, but made their es- cape at the first opportunity. They naturally watch every Southern-looking man with great interest, fear- ing that he may be an unpleasant acquaintance." "Desarters from the Rebel army, be they? Thet SECRET SERVICE. 257 makes me sho\ I thot I'd seen 'em afore, an' this makes me sartin. They're mouty bad pills, an' they hain't heah far no good. But whar did I see 'em ? In some Rebel camp soniewhar? No ; now I remem- ber. Ef I hain't powerfully fooled them's the two laddie-bucks thet Harry Glen an' me gobbled up one fine momin' an' tuck inter Wildcat. They're bad aigs, ef ther ever war bad aigs. " " Harry Glen, did you say ? What do you know of Harry Glen ? " Her heart was in her mouth. "What do I know of Harry Glen ? Why, jest heaps an' more yit. He's one o' the best men thet ever wore blue clothes. But thet's nuther heah nor thar. Thet hain't what I brung ye out heah ter talk on." "Go on," said Rachel, resisting her eagerness to overwhelm him with questions concerning the one man of all the world she most desired to learn about. "I can spare you but little time." "All right, Miss. Ter begin with, my name's not Brown. Nary a time. Hit's Fortner— Jim Fort- ner — the 'noted Scout,' ez I heered ye readin' 'bout 'tother day, when ye war givin' the boys the war news in the papers. I'm well-known ez a secret- sarvice man — tu well-known, I'm afeered. I could git 'long 'ithout quite ez menny 'quaintances pz I hev gethered up lately. More 'specially o' the kind, fur menny on 'em ar' only waitin' a good opportunity ter gin me a gran' interduction to 'tarnity. I'd ruther know fewer folks an' better ones, ez I wunst heered Harry Glen say." "What do you know of -" Rachel started to R 11* 258 THE RED ACORN. say, but beforo she could finish the sentence Fortnei resumed : "I'm now 'l)()ut tor start on the most 'portant work I ever done fur the Gover'mint. Things ar' ripcnin' fast fur the orfulest battle over fit in this ere co'ntry. Afore the Chrismuss snow flies this ere army'll fall on them thar Rel>els "round Murfreesboro like an oak tree on a den o" rattlesnakes. Blood'll run like water in a Spring thaw, an' them foUors'll hov so monny fun'rals tor tend thot thoy won't hcv no time for Chrismuss frolics. They've raced back an' forrard, an' dodged up an' down fur a year now, but they're at the eend uv ther rope, an' hit'll be a deth-nooze fur 'em. May the pit o' hell open fur 'em.'' He watched Rachel's face closely as he spoke. She neither blanched iTor recoiled, but her eyes lighted up as if with anticipation of the coming conflict, and she asked eagerly : "O, are yon only quite sure that our army will be victorious ? " His eyes shone with gratification. "Iknowed thet's the way ye'd take the news. I knowod the minit I sot eyes on ye thot ye war good grit. I never git fooled much in my guess o' peo- ple's backbone. Thar wuz Harry Glen — all his own comrades thot he wuz white 'bout the liver, but I seed the minit I laid my eyes onter him thet he hed ez good, stan'-up stuff* in him ez ennybody, w'en he got over his fust flightiness.'* Had this man some scheme that would bring her lover and her together '( " But what do you want of SECRET SERVICE. 259 me ? •' Rachel asked, with all the composure she could summon. '•Suthing a cussed sight more hon'rable an' more useful ter ther Gover'mint then stayin'Vound heah nussin' those loafers," he answered roughly. " Hist ' thar's a shadder nigh ycm winder." He crossed the room with the quick, silent tread of a panther, and his face dai-kened as he saw the ol>jecti()nable red- headed and black-bearded men walkinir away toward the parade-ground, with their backs to the'window " Yer orful cute," he said, talking to himself, and alludmgtothe retiring figures, -but ef I don't o-in ye a trip afore long thet'U make yer heels bre^ak yer pizen necks I hope I may never see Rockassel Mountings agin. Td do hit now, but I'm a-trailin' bigger game. When hit's my day fur killin' skunks look out— thet's all." Returning to the expectant Radiol he continued • "I leave ter-night fur the Rebel army at Mur- freesboro. Ole Rosy hisself sends me, but I'm ter pick out the messengers ter send my news back ter hiui by. I must hev sevVal so's ter make dead slio' thet ev'rything reaches 'im. I want ye fur the main one, bekase ye've got brains an' san', and then ye kin git thru the lines whar a man can't. Tliar'll be noth- m' bad 'bout hit. Ye'll ride ter xMurfreesboro an' back on yer own boss, ez a young lady should, an' if ye accomplish ennything hit'U be a greater sarvice tew the country then most men kin do in ther lives Hit II be sum'thing ter be proud of ez long's ye live Willye try hit?" •'Why don't you bring back the information 260 TH?: RED ACORN. yourself^ Can't yon come back througli the lines as easil}' as you go ? " "I mout, an' then air'in I nioutn't. Every time I go inter the Rebel camps the chances get stronger thet I '11 never come back ag'in. Ez Harry Glen sez, the circle o' my onpleasant acquaintances — the fellers thet 's reachin' fur my top-knot— widens. Thar 's so many more on 'em layin' fur me all the time, thet the prosju'cts keeps gittin' brigliter every day thet by-an' by they '11 fetch me. The arrant I 'm a-gwineon now is too important ter take any resks 'bout. I 'm sartin to git the information thet Gineral Kosy wants, but whether 1 kin git hit back ter him is ruther duber- some. I must hev 'some help. Will ye jine in with me ( " "But how am 1 to know that all this is as you say?'' "By readin' these 'ere pa.sses, all signed by Gin- eral Rosencrans's own hand, or by takin' a walk with me up ter headquartei*s, whar they '11 tell ye thet I 'm all right, an' ez straight ez a string." ••But how can I do what you wnnt ^ I know nothing of the country, nor the people, and still less of this kind of service. I would probably make a blunder that would spoil all." '• I '11 resk the blundei-s. Ye kin ride critter-back, can't ye?" Rachel owned that she was a pretty fair horse- woman. " Then all ye hev ter do is ter git yer.self up ez ye see the young women who are ridin' "round heah, an' airly on the day arter to-morrow mornin', mount a SECRET SERVICE. 261 blooded mar thct yc 11 tind .standin" afore the door thar, all rigged out ez fine ez silk, an' go down the Lavergne turnpike, at a sharp canter, jes ez though ye war gwine somewhar. Nobody on our lines Ml be likely ter say anything ter ye, but ef they do, ye '11 show 'em a pass from Gineral Rosy, which, howso- ever, ye '11 tar up afore ye reach Lavei'gne, fur ye 'II likely tind some o' t' other folks thar. Ef any o' them at Lavergne axes ye inn)erent questions, ye must hev a story ready 'bout yer being the Nashville niece o' Aunt Debby Brill, who lives on the left hand o' the Nashville pike, jest north o' the public squar in Mur- freesl)oro, an' ye 're on yer way ter pay yer ole Aunty a long promised visit." " There is such a woiiimu in Murfrecsljoro? " "Yes, an' she's talked a great deal 'bout her niece in Nashville, who 's comin' ter see her. I tiiought" — the earnestness of the eyes relaxed to a suspici(m of a twinkle — " thet sometime I mout come across sich a nii'ce fur the ole lady, an' hit wuz well ter be pre- pared fur her.'' ''But suppose they ask me al)out things in Nasli- ville ? " " Wll, yc must fix up a story 'bout thet too. Ye needn't be very partickelar what hit is, so long's hit's awful savage on the Yankees. Be keerful ter sa}' frequently thet the Yankees is awful sick o' their job o' holdin' Nashville ; that their new Dutch Gineral is a mean brute, an' a coward beside ; thet he 's skeered 'bout out 'n his wits half the time, an' he 's buildin' the biggest kind o' forts to hide behind, an' thet he CO won't dar show his nose outside o' them — leastways 262 TIIK RKD ACORN. not this \^vo Wiiitor. Talk t-z imicli oz ye kin 'l)out the sojers rrwine inter AVintcr (jiiarters ; 'Ijout them being mortally sartin not tcM- do anything toll next Spring, an' 'bout them tlesartin* by rijimints an' brig- ades, an' gwine home, bekasc tlu'V "re siek an' tired o' the war." "^Sly," said Kachel. with a gasp. '• what awful things to tell ! *" "Yes," returned the seout C()nii)lacently. "I s'poscd hit'd strike you thet away. Hut my experi- ence with war is tlict hit 's jot plum full o' awful things. In fart hit don't seem ter hev much else in hit. All ye hev ter ax yerself is whether this is nigh on ter ez awful ez the things they 'uns do to we *un>. Besides, we 'uns are likely ter give they 'uns in a few day- a heap more interestin' things ter think about then the remarkable stories told by young ladies out fur a mornin' ride." "Ill take some hours to think this matter over," said Rachel, "and give you your answer this after- noon. That '11 be time enough, will it not ? '' '•Heai)s an' plenty, ma'am," he answered, as he rose to go. " She '11 go," he added to himself. '• I "m not fooled a mite on thet 'ere stock. I'll jest go to headquarters an' git things ready for her" He was right. The i)rospect of doing an impor- tant service on a grand occasion was stimulus enough for Rachel's daring spirit, to make her undertake anything, and when Fortncr returned in the after- noon he found her eager to set out upon the enter- prise. SECRET SERVICE. 263 But as the eveniiiir c:iine on with its depressing shadows and silence, she felt the natural reaction that follows taking an irrevocable step. The loneliness of her unlighted room was peopled with ghostly mem- ories of the horrors inflicted upon spies, and of tales she had heard of the merciless cruelty of the Rebels among whom she was going. She had to hold her breath to keep from shrieking aloud at the terrors conjured u}) before her vision. Then the spasm passed, and braver thoughts reasserted themselves. Fortuer's inadvertent words of praise of Harry Glen were recalled, and began glowing like pots of incense to sweeten and purify the choking vapors in her imag- inati(m. Could it be that Harry had really retrieved him- self? He had certainly gained tiie not -easily -won admiration of this brave man, and it had all been to render himself worthy of her ! There was rapture in the thought. Then her own heroic aspirations welled up again, bringing intoxication at the prospect of ending the distasteful routine of nursing, by taking an active part in what would be a grand event of his- tory. Fears and misgivings vanislied like the mists of the morning. She thought only of how to accom- plish her mission. She lighted a candle and wrote four letters — one to her mother, one to Dr. Denslow, one to Harry Glen in care of his mother, and one to the Hospital Steward, asking him to mail the letters in case he did not receive any contrary request from her before the 10th of January. 264 THE RKD ACORN. She was too excited to sleep in the early p-irt of the night, and busied her waking hours in packing her clothing and books, and maturing her plans. She had much concern about her wardrobe. Never in all the days of her village belleship had she been so anxious to be well-dressed as now, when about to embark upon the greatest act of her life. She planned and schemed as women will in sueh times, and rising early the next morning she visited the stores in the city, and procured the material for a superb riding habit, A cutter from a fashionable establishment in Cincinnati was found in an Orderly Sergeant in one of the convalescent wards, and enough tailors responded to tlie call for such artisans, to give him all the help required By evening she was provided with a hal)it that, in material and that sovereign but indescribable quality called "style," was superior to those worn by the young ladies who cantered about the streets of Nashville on clean-limbed thorough- breds. As she stood surve3'ing the exquisite ''set" of the garment in such mirrors as she could procure, she said to herself quizzically : "I feel now that the expedition is going to be a grand success. No woman could fail being a heroine in such an inspiration of a dress. There is a moral support and encouragement about a perfectly made garment that is hardly equaled by a clear conscience and righteousness of motive." The next morning she came forth from her room attired for the journey. A jaunty hat and feather sat gi'Ecefully above her tace. to which excitement had SECRET SERVICE. 205 given a strikino; animation. One trimly-gauntleted hand carried a dainty whip ; the other supported the long skirts of her riding hal)it as she moved through the ward with such a newly-added grace and beauty that the patients, to whom her appearance had become familiar, raised in tlieir beds to follow the lovely spec- tacle witii their eyes, and then turned to each other to comment upon lier beauty. At the door slie foimd an orderly, holding a spir- ited young mare, handsome enough for a Queen's palfrey, and richly caparisoned. She sprang into the saddle and adjusted her seat with the easy grace of an accomplished horsewoman. A squad of " Convalescents '' standing outside, and and a group of citizens watched her with an admira- tion too palpable for her to be unconscious of it. She smiled pleasantly upon tlie soldiers, and gave them a farewell bow as she turned the mare's head away, to which they responded with cheers. A few hundred yards further, where an angle in the street would take her from their view, she lurned around again and waved her handkerchief to them. The boys gave her another ringing cheer, with waving hats and handkerchiefs ; her steed broke into a canter and she disappeared from view. " Where is she going? " asked one of the soldiers. "I don't know," responded another gallantly; "but wherever it is, it will be better than here, just because she's there." The sight of an orderly, coming with the morning mail, ended the discussion by scattering the squad in a hurry. 12 266 THE RED ACORN. Rachel cantered on, her spirits rising continually. It was a bright, crisp morning — a Tennessee Winter morning — when the air is as wine to the blood, and sets every pulse to leaping. Dt-licate bal- samic scents floated down from groves of shapely cedars. Gratefully-astringent odors were wafted from the red oaks, ranked Ui)on the hillsides and still cov- ered with their leaves, now turned bright-brown, mak- ing them appear like serried phalanges of giant knights, clad in rusted scale armor. The spicy smell of burning cedar rose on the lazily-curling smoke from a thousand camp-fires. The red-berried holly looked as fresh and bright as rose-bushes in June, and the magnolias still wore their liveries of Spring. The sun shone down with a tender fervor, as if wooing the sleeping buds and flowers to wake from a slumber of which he had grown weary, and start with him again through primrose paths on the pilgrimage of blossoming and fruitage. RacheFs nostrils expanded, and she drank deeply of the exhilarating draughts of mountain air, with its delicious woodsy fragrance. Her steed did the same, and the hearts of both swelled with the inspiration. Away she sped over the firm, smooth ]\Iurfrees- boro Pike, winding around hillsides and through val- leys filled with infantry, cavalry and artillery, through interminable masses of wagons, herds of braying mules, and crowds of unarmed soldiers trudging back to Nashville, on leave of absence, to spend the day seeing the sights of the historic Tennessee capital. In the camps the soldiers were busy with evergreen and bunting, and the contents of boxes received from SECRET SERVICE. 267 the North, preparing for the celebration of Christmas in something like the manner of the old days of home and peace. Like the sweet perfume of rose-attar from a bun (lie of letters unwittingly stirred in a drawer, rose the fragrant memory of the last of those Christmascs in Sardis before the war, when winged on the scent of evergreens, and the merry laughter of the church decorators, came to her the knowledge that she had found a lodgment in the heart of Harry Glen. Was memory juggling with her senses, or was that really his voice she heard in command, in a field to her left? She turned a swift, startled look in that direction, and saw a Sergeant marching a large squad at quick time to join a heavy ''detail.'' His back was toward her, but his figure and bodily carriage were certainly those of Plarry Glen. But before she could make certain the squad was merged with the "detail," to the obliteration of all individuality, and the whole mass disappeared around the hill. She rode on to the top of the rim of hills which encircle that most picturesque of Southern cities, and stopjied for a moment for a farewell to the stronghold of her friends, whose friendly cover she was abandon- ing to venture, weak and weaponless, into the camp of her enemies. Above her the gi-eat black guns of a heavy fort pointed their sinister muzzles down the Murfreesboro road, with fearful suggestiveness of the dangers to be encountered there. She remembered Lot's wife, but could not resist the temptation to take a one backward look. She 2fi8 THE RED ACORN. f?;iw MS grand a landscape picture as the world af- fords. Serenely throned upon the hill that dominated the whole of the lovely valley of the Cumberland, stood the beautiful Capitol of Tennessee. Ionic porticos and graceful Corinthian columns of dazzling white limestone rose hundreds of feet above the fountains and magnolia-shaded terraces that crowned the hill — still more hundreds of feet above the densely packed roofs and spires of the city crowded upon the hill's rocky sides It was like some fine and pure old Greek temple, standing on a romantic headhmd, far above the murk and toil of sordid striving. But over the symmetrical pile floated a banner that meant to the world all that was signi- fied even by the banners which Greece folded and laid away in eternal rest thousands of years ago. At the foot of the hill the Cumberland, clear as when it descended from its mountains five hundred miles away, flowed between its high, straight walls of limestone, spanned by cobweb-like bridges, and bore on its untroul)led breast a great fleet of high- chiumoyed, white-sided transports, and black, sullen gunboats. Miles away to her left she saw the trains rushing into Nashville, unrolling as they came long black and white ribbons against the sky. "They're coming from the North,'"' she said, with an involuntary sigh ; '' they're coming from home." She touched her mare's flank with the whip and sped on. She soon reached the outer line of guards, by whom she was halted, with a demand for her pass. SECRET SERVICE, 269 She produced the one furnished her, which was signed by Gen. Rosencrans. While the Sergeant was in- specting it it occurred to her that now was the time to begin the rdle of a young woman with rebellious proclivities. "Is this the last guard-line I will have to pass? " she asked. " Yes'm,'* answered the Sergeant. " You're quite sure ? " " Yes'ni." ■ "Then I won't have any further use for this— thing ? " indicating the pass, which she received back with fine loathing, as if it were something infec- tious. "No'm." "Quite sure?" " Yes'm, quite sure." She rode over to the fire around which part of the guard were sitting, held the pass over it by the extremest tips of her dainty thumb and forefinger, and then dropped it upon the coals, as if it were a rag from a small-pox hospital. Glancing at her fin- ger-tips an instant, as if they had been permanently contaminated by the scrawl of the Yankee General, she touched her nag, and was off like an arrow with- out so much as good day to the guards. " She-cesh— clean to her blessed little toe-nails," said the Sergeant, gazing after her meditatively, as he fished around in his pouch for a handful of Kinni- kinnick, to replenish his pipe, " and she's purtier'n a picture, too." "Them's the kind that's always the wust Rebels," 270 TfiE ri:d acokn. said the oracle of the sqnad. from his .seat by the fire. "I'll bet she's just loaded down Avith information or ouinine. Mebbe both." She was now fairly in the enemy's country, and her heart beat faster in momentar}' expectation of en- countering^ some form of the perils abounding there. But she became calm, almost joyous, as she pas.sed through mile after mile of tranquil landscape. The war might as well have been on the other side of the Atlantic for any hint .she now .saw of it in the peace- ful, sun-lit fields and woods, and streams of crystal spring-water. She saw women busily engaged in their morning work about all the cabins and houses. With bare and sinewy arms they beat up and down in tiresomely monotonous stroke the long-handled da.shers of cedarn churns standing in the wide, open •'entries" of the '' dolible-houses ; " they arrayed their well-scalded milk crocks and jars where the sun's rays would still further sweeten them ; they plied swift shuttles in the weaving sheds ; they toiled over great, hemi.^pherical kettles of dye-stuffs or soap, swing- ing from poles over open fires in the yard ; 1hey spread out long webs of jeans and linen on the grass to dry or bleach, and all the while they .'^ang — sang the measured rhythm of familiar hymns in the high soprano of white women sang wild, plaintive lyrics in the liquid contralto of negresses. Men were re- pairing fences, and doing other Winter work in the fields, and from the woods came the ringing staccato of choppers. She met on the road leisurely-traveling negro women, who louted low to her, and then as she passed, turned to gaze after her with feminine analy- SECRET SERVICE. 271 sis and admiration for every detail of iier attire. Then came "Uncle Tom" looking men, driving wagons loaded with newly-riven rails, breathing the virile pungency of freshly-cut oak. Occasionally an old white man or woman rode by, greeting her with a courteous "Howdy ? " The serenity everywhere intoxicated her with a half-belief that the terrible Rebel army at Murfrees- boro was only a nightmare of fear-oppressed brains, and in her relief she was ready to burst out in echo of a triumphant hymn ringing from a weaving-shed at her right. Her impulse was checked by seeing approach a figure harshly dissonant to Arcadian surroundings It was a young man riding a powerful roan horse at an easy gallop, and carrying in his hand, ready foi- instant use, a 16-shooting Henry rifle. He Avas evi- dently a scout, but, as was usual with that class, his uniform was so equally made up of blue and gray that it was impossible to tell to which side he be- longed. He reined up as he saw Rachel, and looked at her for a moment in a way that chilled her. They were now on a lonely bit of road, out of sight and hearing of any person or house. All a woman's fears rose up in her heart, but she shut her lips firmly, and rode directly toward the scout. Another thought seemed to enter his mind, he touched his horse up with his heel, and rode by her, saying courteously : "Good morning. Miss," but eyeing her intently as they passed. She returned the salutation with a firm voice, and rode onward, but at a little distance could not resist the temptation to turn and look back- 272 THE RED ACORN. ward. To her horror the scout had stopped, half turned his horse, and was watching her as if debating whether or not to come l)at'k after her. She yielded to the impulse of fear, struck her mare a stiniring blow, and the animal flew away. Her fright sul)si(led as she heard no hoof-l)eats following iier, and when she raised her eyes, she saw that she was approaching the village of Lavcrgne, half-wa}- to Murfreesboro, and that a party of Rebel cavalry were moving toward her. She felt less tre- mor at this Hrsl sight of the armed enemy than she had expected, after her panic over the scout, and rode towanl the horsemen with perfect outward, and no little inward coinposure. The Lieutenant in command raised his hat with the greatest gallantry. '' Good morning. Miss. From the city. I suppose ?" he inquired. "Yes," she answered in tones as even as if speak- ing in a parlor ; " fortunately. I am at last from the city. I have been trying to get away ever since it seemed hopeless that our people would not redeem it soon." The conversation thus opened was carried on by Rachel giving copious and disparaging information concerning the " Yankees," and tlie Lieutenant listen- ing inlidmiration to the musical accents, interrupting them but rarely to interject a question or a favorable comment. He was as little cntical as ardent young men are apt to be of the statements of captivating young women, and Rachel's spirits rose as she saw that the worst she had to fear from this enemy was SECRET SERVICE. 2^3 an excess of devotion. The story of her aunt at Murfrcesboro received unhesitating acceptance, and nothing but imperative scouting orders prevented his escorting her to the town. He would, however, send a non-commissioned officer with her, who would see that she was not molested by any one. He requested permission to call upon her at her aunt's, which Kachel was compelled to grant, for lack of any readv excuse for such a contingency. With this, and manV smiles and bows, they parted. All the afternoon she rode through camps of n)en in gray and butternut, as she had ridden throu-h those of men in blue in the morning. I„ these, as In he others, she heard gay songs, dance music and laughter, and saw thousands of merry boy.s rollickincr in the sunshine at games of ball and other sports° with the joyous earnestness of a school-house play- ground. She tried, but in vain, to realize that in a te^y days these thoughtless youths would be the de- mons of the battle-field. Just before dusk she came to the top of a low linmstone ridge, and saw, three miles awav, the lights ot Murfreesboro. At that moment Fortner appeared .jogging leisurely towai