d to-night at Marietta." Then, as
he realized that he was in a car filled with men who would treat him as a
spy, if they knew the nature of his errand to the South, there came over
him a great wave of homesickness. He had lived all his life among friends;
it was for him a new sensation to feel that he was secretly opposed to his
fellow-travelers.

The thin Captain who sat next to him turned and curiously regarded Waggie,
who was lying on his master's lap. He had shrewd gray eyes, had this
Captain, and there was a week's growth of beard upon his weazened face.

"Where did you get your dog from, lad?" he asked, giving Waggie a pat with
one of his skeleton-like hands. It was a pat to which the little animal
paid no attention.

"From home--Cincinnati."

George had answered on the spur of the moment, thoughtlessly, carelessly,
before he had a chance to detect what a blunder he was making. The next
second he could have bitten out his tongue in very vexation; he felt that
his face was burning a bright red; he had a choking sensation at the
throat.

The emaciated Captain was staring at him in a curiously surprised fashion.
"From Cincinnati? Cincinnati, Ohio?" he asked, fixing his lynx-like eyes
attentively upon his companion.

Poor George! Every idea seemed to have left him in his sudden confusion;
he was only conscious that the Confederate officer continued to regard him
in the same intent manner. "I say," repeated the latter, "is your home in
Ohio?"

"Yes, Cincinnati, Ohio," said the boy boldly. "After all," as he thought,
"I had better put a frank face on this stupidity of mine; a stammering
answer will only make this fellow the more suspicious."

"So then you're a Northerner, are you, my son?" observed the Captain. "I
thought you spoke with a bit of a Yankee accent!"

"Yes, I'm a Northerner," answered George. As he felt himself plunging
deeper and deeper into hot water he was trying to devise some plausible
story to tell the officer. But how to invent one while he was being
subjected to that close scrutiny. One thing, at least, was certain. Once
he had admitted that his home was in Ohio he could not make any use of the
oft repeated Kentucky yarn.

"And what are you doing down here?" asked the Captain. He spoke very
quietly, but there was an inflection in his voice which seemed to say:
"Give a good account of yourself--for your presence in this part of the
country is curious, if nothing more."

George understoo