her way. But 'light,
strangers! 'Light an' hev supper!"

"We will," said Harry, "but we're not going to crowd you out of your
house. We've plenty of food with us, and we're accustomed to sleeping
out of doors."

Nevertheless the hospitality of Dick Jones and his wife, Mandy, was
unbounded. It was arranged that the two colonels should sleep inside,
while the others took to the grass with their blankets. Liberal
contributions were made to the common larder by the travelers, and they
had an abundant supper, after which the men sat outside, the colonels
smoking good old North Carolina weed, and Mrs. Jones knitting in the dusk.

"Don't you and your family get lonesome here sometimes, Mr. Jones?"
asked Harry.

"Never," replied the mountaineer. "You see I've had enough o' noise an'
multitudes. More than once I've seen two hundred thousand men fightin',
and I've heard the cannon roarin', days without stoppin'. I still git to
dreamin' at night 'bout all them battles, an' when I awake, an' set up
sudden like an' hear nothin' outside but the tricklin' o' the branch an'
the wind in the leaves, I'm thankful that them four years are over,
an' nobody is shootin' at nobody else. An' it's hard now an' then to
b'lieve that they're really an' truly over."

"But how about Mrs. Jones?"

"She an' the baby stayed here four whole years without me, but we've got
neighbors, though you can't see 'em fur the trees. Jest over the ridge
lives her mother, an' down Jones' Creek, into which the branch runs,
lives her married sister, an' my own father ain't more'n four miles away.
The settlements are right thick 'roun' here, an' we hev good times."

Mrs. Jones nodded her emphatic assent.

"Which way do you-all 'low to be goin' tomorrow?" asked Jones.

"We think we'd better keep to the west," replied Colonel Talbot. "We've
heard of a guerrilla band under two men, Slade and Skelly, who are making
trouble to the southward."

"I've heard of 'em too," said Jones, "an' I reckon they're 'bout the
meanest scum the war hez throwed up. The troops will be after 'em afore
long, an' will clean 'em out, but I guess they'll do a lot o' damage
afore then. You gen'lemen will be wise to stick to your plan, an' keep
on toward the west."

They departed the next morning, taking with them the memory of a very
pleasant meeting, and once more pursued their way through the wilderness.
Harry, despite inquiries at every possible place, heard nothing mor