a pone of
corn bread, but the meat was only such as they could procure in a hurry,
and consisted of the livers, lights, noses and such portions of the
animal as would not be used by the planter and his family.

The skiff of the darkeys had been lodged, during high water, behind a
tree, and when we got it down and afloat it looked like a sieve. We
caulked it as best we could with leaves and some old rags, but the thing
was a failure, and none of us cared to risk it.

Sam offered to pilot us to Little Rock himself, crossing the river lower
down and then going across the country, but this offer we declined,
because of the almost certainty of death if runaway prisoners were
caught with a runaway negro. Sam still insisted, however, saying that he
had a rifle and seven rounds of ammunition, and that we could fight if
we had to, but we positively refused to take him with us, and the man
was actually inclined to be angry. The matter was settled by Taylor
giving us directions to follow the river down stream until we found a
cabin in a certain spot, which he described, and we set off in high
glee, Taylor further informing us that his name would make everything
right with the owners of the cabin, and that we would find a willing and
able ferryman there.

It was now nearly morning, and we hastened on our way; but, when we came
to the spot where Taylor had told us we would find a path to the cabin,
we found that a large force of cavalry had recently been camped there,
and all signs of any regular path were completely obliterated by the
trampled condition of the ground and the many trails leading in all
directions, while an immense quantity of corn shucks were strewn all
about the place.

We made a circuit of the camp, and finally struck off on a path which
looked as if it might be the one meant by Taylor, but we had not gone a
great ways when it became a blind lead, and we were soon lost in the
canebrake. The cane made it too dark to proceed farther, and we went
into camp.

When daylight came we found ourselves in a great bend of the river, and
a little feeling around showed us a number of cavalry horses turned
loose. We therefore kept quiet, in a part of the bottom where the cane
was so thick that we once heard a man rounding up the horses without our
being able to see him. As Rummel expressed it, "We couldn't have found a
cow right there if we had had hold of her tail."

After a while we stole out to where we could see with