throat by its strings and flowed on
down to the saddle-bow. His admiring eyes, grave for once, had made the
journey twice before he noticed that the child was trying to comfort the
mother, and that the light of the sinking moon was glistening back from
Mary's falling tears.

"Better let me have the little one," he said, "and you sort o' fix up a
little, befo' we happen to meet up with somebody, as I said. It's lucky
we haven't done it already."

A little coaxing prevailed with Alice, and the transfer was made. Mary
turned away her wet eyes, smiling for shame of them, and began to coil
her hair, her companion's eye following.

"Oh, you aint got no business to be ashamed of a few tears. I knowed you
was a good soldier, befo' ever we started; I see' it in yo' eye. Not as
I want to be complimentin' of you jess now. 'I come not here to talk,'
as they used to say in school. D'd you ever hear that piece?"

"Yes," said Mary.

"That's taken from Romans, aint it?"

"No," said Mary again, with a broad smile.

"I didn't know," said the man; "I aint no brag Bible scholar." He put on
a look of droll modesty. "I used to could say the ten commandments of
the decalogue, oncet, and I still tries to keep 'em, in ginerally.
There's another burnt house. That's the third one we done passed inside
a mile. Raiders was along here about two weeks back. Hear that rooster
crowin'? When we pass the plantation whar he is and rise the next hill,
we'll be in sight o' the little town whar we stop for refresh_ments_, as
the railroad man says. You must begin to feel jess about everlastin'ly
wore out, don't you?"

"No," said Mary; but he made a movement of the head to indicate that he
had his belief to the contrary.

At an abrupt angle of the road Mary's heart leaped into her throat to
find herself and her companion suddenly face to face with two horsemen
in gray, journeying leisurely toward them on particularly good horses.
One wore a slouched hat, the other a Federal officer's cap. They were
the first Confederates she had ever seen eye to eye.

"Ride on a little piece and stop," murmured the spy. The strangers
lifted their hats respectfully as she passed them.

"Gents," said the spy, "good-morning!" He threw a leg over the pommel of
his saddle and the three men halted in a group. One of them copied the
spy's attitude. They returned the greeting in kind.

"What command do you belong to?" asked the lone stranger.

"Simmons's battery," said