"Two? I've got half a dozen, and I don't know which to tell first. And
the beauty of it is, they are all good ones."

"You said somebody had taken your hunting rig away from you," Tom
reminded him. "Do you call that a good story?"

"I didn't think about that when I spoke," replied Mark, jumping up and
looking around for a place to hitch his horse. Then he calmed himself by
an effort, and went on to say: "This morning I received all the proof I
want that we are for a time a subjugated people--that the presence of a
hostile garrison means something. I had somehow got it into my head that
the Yankees would stay inside the forts they have taken from us by their
overwhelming numbers, and that they would not have the cheek to come
among our people where they know well enough they are not wanted, but
now I know that they don't mean to do anything of the sort. They are
going to bother us by sending scouting parties through our settlement as
often as they feel like it."

The spiteful emphasis Mark threw into his words, and the look of disgust
his face wore while he talked, brought a hearty laugh from somewhere.
The boys looked up and saw Mr. Allison standing at the top of the
steps.

"Of course, Mark, they will do that very thing," said he. "They will
make it their business to annoy us in every way they can. Do I
understand you to say that they came to your house this morning?"

"Yes, sir, they did," said Mark angrily. "There were about fifty of them
in the party. They asked for father, and when he sent back word, as any
other Southern gentleman would have done, that he would hold no
intercourse with the invaders of his State----"

"Was your father crazy enough to send them any such message as that?"
exclaimed Mr. Allison, who was very much astonished.

"Of course he sent them that message," replied Mark, becoming surprised
in his turn. "Wouldn't you, if you had been in his place?"

"Indeed, I would not," said Mr. Allison, decidedly.

"My father is a brave man," added Mark, in a tone which implied that
that was more than he could say of the gentleman to whom he was
speaking. "He looks down on a Yankee."

"So do I; but that is no reason why I should make a fool of myself when
they come to my house fifty strong and send word that they want to see
me. It's a wonder they didn't hang your father, or take him away with
them."

"We thought that was just what they meant to do," said Mark, with a
shudder, "for four or five o