is horse about and
dashed back up the road at a great pace, followed by his men. The boys
were half inclined to follow and aid in the capture; but Frank, after
a moment's thought, said solemnly:

"No, Willy; an Arab never betrays a man who has eaten his salt. This
man has broken bread with us; we cannot give him up. I don't think we
ought to have told about him as much as we did."

This was an argument not to be despised.

A little later, as the boys trudged home, they heard the horns blowing
again a regular "toot-toot" for "Millindy." It struck them that
supper followed dinner very quickly in Holetown.

When the troop passed by in the evening the men were in very bad
humor. They had had a fruitless addition to their ride, and some of
them were inclined to say that the boys had never seen any man at all,
which the boys thought was pretty silly, as the man had eaten at least
two-thirds of their lunch.

Somehow the story got out, and Hugh was very scornful because the boys
had given their lunch to a deserter.

CHAPTER VIII.

As time went by the condition of things at Oakland changed--as it did
everywhere else. The boys' mother, like all the other ladies of the
country, was so devoted to the cause that she gave to the soldiers
until there was nothing left. After that there was a failure of the
crops, and the immediate necessities of the family and the hands on
the place were great.

There was no sugar nor coffee nor tea. These luxuries had been given
up long before. An attempt was made to manufacture sugar out of the
sorghum, or sugar-cane, which was now being cultivated as an
experiment; but it proved unsuccessful, and molasses made from the
cane was the only sweetening. The boys, however, never liked anything
sweetened with molasses, so they gave up everything that had molasses
in it. Sassafras tea was tried as a substitute for tea, and a drink
made out of parched corn and wheat, of burnt sweet potato and other
things, in the place of coffee; but none of them were fit to drink--at
least so the boys thought. The wheat crop proved a failure; but the
corn turned out very fine, and the boys learned to live on corn bread,
as there was no wheat bread.

The soldiers still came by, and the house was often full of young
officers who came to see the boys' cousins. The boys used to ride the
horses to and from the stables, and, being perfectly fearless, became
very fine riders.

Several times, among the visitor