Two Little Confederates

gone with the army. Indeed, with the exception of a few overseers who remained to work the fa

uard," as it was called, which was a company composed of young boys and the few old men who remained at hom

ficer," would come through the country hunting for any men who were subject to the conscript la

of those whose extreme age or youth alone withheld them from active service; and every youngster in its ranks looked upon it as a training s

, and were thought to be shirking the very dangers and

on of an unsavory nature, though its inhabitants were a harmless people. No highways ran through this region, and the only roads which entered it were mere wood-ways, filled with bushes and ca

with great contempt, "po' white trash." Some of them owned small places in the pines; but the majority were sim

it out, attempted the cultivation of little patches of corn and tobacco near their

w that one had to look at them twice to see them

ost of them, when in battle, showed the greatest fearlessness, yet the duties of camp soon became irksome to them, and they grew sick of the restraint and drilling of camp-life; so some of them, when refused a furlough, took it,

went by, that Holetown became kno

or rushing away through the underbrush like wild cattle. And, though the grown people doubted whether the negroes had not been startl

guard, with the brightest of uniforms, rode by with as much show and noise as if on a fox-hunt. Then it bec

s as openly as in time of peace, and more industriously. They had a regular code of

t the cabins would blow a horn lustily; after which not a man could be found in all the district. The horn told just how many

one morning of an old woman,-old Mrs. Hall who stood out in

n call her gals to git some'n' to eat? You got all her boys in d'army, killin' 'em; whyn't yo' g

llindy to come home," she said, with more sharpness than before. But there mus

rumors were abroad of one or more caves, all fitted up, wherein they concealed

sheep became so common that the

deserters or drive them away. Hugh was to accompany them, of course; and he looked very handsome, as well as very important, when he started out on horseback to join the troop. It was his first active service; and with his tr

over their request, and looked so soldierly as he galloped a