he was takin' a nap, his wife
took her scissors an' whacked it off. The reason she give was that she
wanted to make four or five sofy pillows; but I heard afterwards that
she changed her mind, an' made a good big mattress."

Nan looked hard at the solemn countenance of Mr. Sanders, trying to
discover whether he was in earnest, but older and wiser eyes than hers
had often failed to penetrate behind the veil of child-like serenity
that sometimes clothed his features.

One day while Gabriel was deep in a law-book, Colonel Tom Vardeman came
in smiling. He had a telegram in his hand, which he tossed to Gabriel.
It was from Major Tomlin Perdue, and contained an urgent request for
Gabriel to take the next train for Halcyondale, where he would meet the
prisoners who had been released pending their trial by the State courts,
an event that never came off. Gabriel had seen in the morning paper that
the prisoners were to be released in a day or two; but undoubtedly Major
Perdue had the latest information, for he was in communication with
Meriwether Clopton and other friends of the prisoners who were in
Atlanta watching the progress of the case.

Gabriel lost no time in making his arrangements to leave, and he was in
Halcyondale some hours before the Atlanta train was due. When all had
arrived, they were for going home at once; but the citizens of
Halcyondale, led by Major Perdue and Colonel Blasengame, would not hear
of such a thing.

"No, sirs!" exclaimed Major Perdue. "You young ones have been away from
home long enough to be weaned, and a day or two won't make any
difference to anybody's feelings. We have long been wanting a red-letter
day in this section, and now that we've got the excuse for making one,
we're not going to let it go by. Everything is fixed, or will be by day
after to-morrow. We're going to have a barbecue half-way between this
town and Shady Dale. The time was ripe for it anyhow, and you fellows
make it more binding. The people of the two counties haven't had a
jollification since the war, and they couldn't have one while it was
going on. They haven't had an excuse for it; and now that we have the
excuse we're not going to turn it loose until the jollification is
over."

And so it was arranged. Notice was given to the people in the
old-fashioned way, and nearly everybody in the two counties not only
contributed something to the barbecue, but came to enjoy it, and when
they were assembled they made up the