tened the parcel and opened it. The officer laughed.

"Well, we won't confiscate them as contraband of war."

So saying, he set spurs to his horse and galloped on with his troop.
Vincent rode on to Union Grove, and then, taking a road at random, kept
on till he reached a small farmhouse. He knocked at the door, and a
woman came out.

"Mother," he said, "can you put me up for a couple of days? I am a
stranger here, and all the villages are full of soldiers."

The woman looked at him doubtfully.

"What are you doing here?" she asked at last. "This aint a time for
strangers; besides, a young fellow like you ought to be ashamed to show
yourself when you ought to be over there with Lee. My boys are both
there and my husband. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a
strong-looking young fellow like you, to be riding about instead of
fighting the Yankees. Go along! you will get no shelter here. I would
scorn to have such as you inside the door."

"Perhaps I have been fighting there," Vincent said significantly. "But
one can't be always fighting, and there are other things to do
sometimes. For instance, to find out what the Yankees are doing and what
are their plans."

"Is that so?" the woman asked doubtfully.

"That is so," he answered earnestly. "I am an officer in Wade Hampton's
cavalry, and now Sheridan's troopers have cut off all communication, I
have come out to find for General Lee where the Yankees are building
their batteries before Petersburg."

"In that case you are welcome," the woman said. "Come straight in! I
will lead your horse out and fasten him up in the bush, and give him a
feed there. It will never do to put him in the stable; the Yankees come
in and out, and they'd take him off sharp enough if their eyes fell on
him. I think you will be safe enough, even if they do come. They will
take you for a son of mine, and if they ask any questions I will answer
them sharp enough."

"I wonder they have left you a feed of corn," Vincent said, when the
woman returned after taking away his horse.

"It's no thanks to them," she answered; "they have cleared out
everything that they could lay their hands on. But I have been expecting
it for months, and, as I have had nothing to do since my man and boys
went away, I have been digging a great pit in the wood over there, and
have buried most all my corn, and have salted my pigs down and buried
them in barrels; so they didn't find much. They took the old horse and
t