I don't remember to have ever seen you before," replied the
farmer.

"You never did, sir; but I will venture to say that my name is well known
in this house," added the soldier with a mysterious smile, which caused
Somers to dread some new development that would compromise him.

"Ah!" said Mr. Raynes, ever ready to welcome any one who had the
slightest claim upon his hospitality.

"I am well acquainted with your son, Owen; I suppose I shall not be
disputed here, when I say that he is the best fellow in the world. Don't
you know me now?" demanded the tantalizing rebel, who appeared to be very
anxious to have his identity made out in the natural way, and without any
troublesome explanations.

"Really, I do not," answered Mr. Raynes, much perplexed by the confident
manner of the visitor.

"This is Sue, I suppose?" pursued the soldier, advancing to the maiden,
and extending his dirty hand; which, however, was not much dirtier than
that which she had so eagerly grasped before. "Don't you know who I am,
Sue?"

"I do not, sir," she replied rather coldly.

"When I tell you that I belong to the Fourth Alabama, don't you know me?"

"I do not, sir."

"And when I tell you that I am the intimate friend of your brother Owen?"

Allan Garland stood by the door; and, of course, it was not he; therefore
she could not, by any possibility, conceive who he was; and she said so,
in terms as explicit as the occasion required.

"I live in Union, Alabama, when I am at home. Don't you know me _now_,
Sue?" persisted the perplexed visitor, who, perhaps, began to think he
had entered the wrong house.

If the veritable Allan Garland, however little his photograph resembled
him, had not stood by the door, she would have been rejoiced to see him,
and to recognize in him her unknown friend and correspondent. As it was,
she did not know him; and she was candid enough to express her conviction
without reserve, in spite of the disagreeable effect which her want of
perception seemed to produce upon the mind of the stranger.

"This is very strange," said the soldier, taking off his cap, and rubbing
his head to quicken his faculties, which seemed to have led him into some
unaccountable blunder. "Will you be kind enough to inform me who lives in
this house?"

"Mr. Raynes," replied Sue, quite as much mystified as the stranger seemed
to be.

"There is some mistake; but I can't make out what it is," said the
stranger.

"I cannot wait any lon