s all out except near the stern. Dan
and Vincent then turned it bottom upward, and it was soon hauled up
among the bushes.

"Now, Miss Kingston, which do you think is our best course? I know
nothing whatever of the geography here."

"The next town is Mount Pleasant; that is where the Williamsport road
passes the railway. If we keep south we shall strike the railway, and
that will take us to Mount Pleasant. After that the road goes on to
Florence on the Tennessee River. The only place that I know of on the
road is Lawrenceburg. That is about forty miles from here, and I have
heard that the Yankees are on the line from there right and left. I
believe our troops are at Florence; but I am not sure about that,
because both parties are constantly shifting their position, and I hear
very little, as you may suppose, of what is being done. Anyhow, I think
we cannot do better than go on until we strike the railway, keep along
by that till we get within a short distance of Mount Pleasant, and then
cross it. After that we can decide whether we will travel by the road or
keep on through the woods. But we cannot find our way through the woods
at night; we should lose ourselves before we had gone twenty yards."

"I am afraid we should, Miss Kingston."

"Please call me Lucy," the girl interrupted. "I am never called anything
else, and I am sure this is not a time for ceremony."

"I think that it will be better; and will you please call me Vincent? It
is much shorter and pleasanter using our first names; and as we must
pass for brother and sister, if we get among the Yankees, it is better
to get accustomed to it. I quite agree with you that it will be too dark
to find our way through the woods unless we can discover a path. Dan and
I will see if we can find one. If we can, I think it will be better to
go on a little way at any rate, so as to get our feet warm and let our
clothes dry a little."

"They will not dry to-night," Lucy said. "It is so damp in the woods
that even if our clothes were dry now they would be wet before morning."

"I did not think of that. Yes, in that case I do not see that we should
gain anything by going farther; we will push on for two or three hundred
yards, if we can, and then we can light a fire without there being any
chance of its being seen from the other side."

"That would be comfortable, Mr.--I mean Vincent," the girl agreed. "That
is, if you are quite sure that it would be safe. I would rather