drop politics; we never could agree, you know.
What shall I do about Moye?"

"Go to Wilmington and telegraph all creation: wait a day to har, then if
you don't har, go home, hire a native overseer, and let Moye go to the
d----l. Ef it'll do you any good I'll go to Wilmington with you, though
I did mean to give you Secesherners a little h--har to-morrer."

"No, Andy, I'll go alone. 'Twouldn't be patriotic to take you away from
the barbacue. You'd 'spile' if you couldn't let off some gas soon."

"I do b'lieve I shud. Howsumdever, thar's nary a thing I wouldn't do for
you--you knows that."

"Yes, I do, and I wish you'd keep an eye on my Yankee friend here, and
see he don't get into trouble with any of the boys--there'll be a hard
set 'round, I reckon."

"Wal, I will," said Andy, "but all he's to do is to keep his mouth
shet."

"That seems easy enough," I replied, laughing.

A desultory conversation followed for about an hour, when the
steam-whistle sounded, and the up-train arrived. The Colonel got on
board and bidding us "good-night," went on to Wilmington. Andy then
proposed we should look up sleeping accommodations. It was useless to
seek quarters at the hotel, but an empty car was on the turn-out, and
bribing one of the negroes we got access to it, and were soon stretched
at full length on two of its hard-bottomed seats.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BARBACUE.

The camp-ground was about a mile from the station, and pleasantly
situated in a grove, near a stream of water. It was in frequent use by
the camp-meetings of the Methodist denomination--which sect at the South
is partial to these rural religious gatherings. Scattered over it, with
an effort at regularity, were about forty small but neat log cottages,
thatched with the long leaves of the turpentine pine, and chinked with
branches of the same tree. Each of these houses was floored with leaves
or straw, and large enough to afford sleeping accommodations for about
ten persons, provided they spread their bedding on the ground, and lay
tolerably close together. Interspersed among the cabins were about a
dozen canvas tents which had been erected for this especial occasion.

Nearly in the centre of the group of huts a rude sort of scaffold, four
or five feet high, and surrounded by a rustic railing, served for the
speaker's stand. It would seat about a dozen persons, and was protected
by a roof of pine-boughs, interlaced together so as to keep off the sun,
w