he
kin never do hit. I know the men I sent ter do the job.'

"Two rifle shots sounded a'most together, an' then immediately arter wuz
a couple o' boastful Injun-like yells.

"'Thar, Deb, heah thet? Ye'r a widder now. Be thankful thet I let ye
off so easy. I ought by rights ter burn yer house, an' put thet boy o'
your'n whar he'll do no harm, but this'll do fur an example ter these
mounting traitors. They've lost their leader, an' ther hain't no one ter
take his place. They'll know now thet we're in dead airnest. Boys, go
inter the house an' git all the guns thar is thar, an' what vittles an'
blankets ye want; but make haste, fur we must git away from heah in a
hurry.'

"I run ez fast ez my feet'd carry me to whar David lay stone dead.
Fortner saddled his colt an' galloped off ter his cousin Jim Fortner's,
ter rouse the Home Gyard. The colt reached Jim's house, bekase hits
mammy wuz thar; but my son never did. In takin' the shortest road, he
hed ter cross the dangerousest ford on the Rockassel. The young beast
wuz skeered nigh ter death, an' hits rider wuz drowned."

Chapter XIII. "An Apple Jack Raid."

This kind o' sojerin' ain't a mite like our October trainin',
A chap could clear right out from there, ef it only lookd like rainin';
And the Cunnels, too, could kiver up their shappoes with bandanners,
An' send the Insines skootin' to the bar-room, with their banners,
(Fear o' gittin' on 'em spotted,) an' a feller could cry quarter
Ef he fired away his ramrod arter tu much rum an' water.

--James Russel Lowell.

The morning after the battle, Kent Edwards was strolling around the camp
at Wildcat. "Shades of my hot-throated ancestors who swallowed several
fine farms by the tumblerful, how thirsty I am!" he said at length.
"It's no wonder these Kentuckians are such hard drinkers. There's
something in the atmosphere that makes me drier the farther we advance
into the State. Maybe the pursuit of glory has something desiccating in
it. At least, all the warriors I ever heard of seemed composed of clay
that required as much moistening as unslaked lime. I will hie me to teh
hill of frankincense and the mountain of myrrh; in other words, I'll go
back where Abe is, and get what's left in the canteen."

He found his saturine comrade sitting on a log by a comfortable fire,
restoring buttons which, like soldiers, had become "missing by reason of
exigencies of th