he rain drops fall off the house and make little bubbles in the drip,
and listening to the pattering on the clapboard roof, when happening to
look up, not fifty yards off, I discovered a regiment of Yankee cavalry
approaching. I knew it would be utterly impossible for me to get away
unseen, and I did not know what to do. The Yankee prisoner was scared
almost to death. I said, "Look, look!" I turned in the room, and found
the planks of the floor were loose. I raised two of them, and Yank and I
slipped through. I replaced the planks, and could peep out beneath the
sill of the house, and see the legs of the horses. They passed on and
did not come to the old house. They were at least a half hour in
passing. At last the main regiment had all passed, and I saw the rear
guard about to pass, when I heard the captain say, "Go and look in that
old house." Three fellows detached themselves from the command and came
dashing up to the old house. I thought, "Gone up, sure," as I was afraid
the Yankee prisoner would make his presence known. When the three men
came up, they pushed open the door and looked around, and one fellow said
"Booh!" They then rode off. But that "Booh!" I was sure I was caught,
but I was not.

"WHAT IS THIS REBEL DOING HERE?"

I would go up to the Yankee outpost, and if some popinjay of a tacky
officer didn't come along, we would have a good time. One morning I was
sitting down to eat a good breakfast with the Yankee outpost. They were
cavalry, and they were mighty clever and pleasant fellows. I looked down
the road toward Atlanta, and not fifty yards from the outpost, I saw a
body of infantry approaching. I don't know why I didn't run. I ought
to have done so, but didn't. I stayed there until this body of infantry
came up. They had come to relieve the cavalry. It was a detail of negro
soldiers, headed by the meanest looking white man as their captain,
I ever saw.

In very abrupt words he told the cavalry that he had come to take their
place, and they were ordered to report back to their command. Happening
to catch sight of me, he asked, "What is this Rebel doing here?" One of
the men spoke up and tried to say something in my favor, but the more he
said the more the captain of the blacks would get mad. He started toward
me two or three times. He was starting, I could see by the flush of
his face, to take hold of me, anyhow. The cavalrymen tried to protest,
and said a few cuss word