questioning,
which we did.

Just as we had shoved off, and were being hauled along through the trees
to the river bank where the ferry wire was tied, we heard a shout, and,
looking back, saw three horsemen approaching on a gallop. The ferryman
did not stop, and one of the riders yelled out fiercely, and fired his
gun to show that they would make us stop if we did not choose to do so,
whereupon the boat was stopped and slowly pushed back to the water's
edge.

Our relief can be imagined when I discovered that the riders were not
our soldier friends.

As we emerged from the trees into the river channel the current was very
strong, and the heavy load seemed too much for the ferryman and his
helper.

This helper was an old man of an inquisitive nature and appearance, and
I was afraid that he might say or ask something which would attract more
attention to us than was necessary for our comfort or desire for
prominence; so I got up and went over to him, taking hold of the rope
and helping him with the boat, while I plied him with questions so thick
and fast that he only got the opportunity to ask me two questions, both
of which were easily answered.

As we reached the farther shore we had to pull and push the boat among
the trees for nearly half a mile before we reached the ground, and my
old friend was anxious that my friends and myself should be assisted
over the marshy bottom, which extended for some distance, by riding
behind the three horsemen.

He proposed this to the riders, but the visible reluctance of these
gentlemen enabled me to get out of this disagreeable situation with
credit to ourselves, and we struck off through the swamp on our own
hook, after hearing the following remark of the ferryman, made as one of
the riders offered to pay him with a $5 bill of an issue which the
Confederacy had recalled, with a notice that they would not be redeemed
by exchange or otherwise after the coming 1st of January:

"My God, man! I would as soon have a notch on one of them trees as one
of them bills."

After a short walk through the swampy bottom, we struck what was then an
island, and on which were camped about 150 refugees from Missouri. They
had their live stock and all belongings with them.

These people had been too friendly to the South, when Price was in their
State, to make it healthy there for them after he had been driven out,
and they had come to Texas and were living as best they could. From them
we le