t stay. We's gwine, sho'.'

"'Well, well, aunty, all right; I will see that you go. I will take the
consequences. I will not see as good an old couple as you are held like
cattle if I can help it.'

"The old woman shouted 'glory,' and hobbled out of the cabin, I presume,
to tell Ham what I had said.

"By this time the Colonel had recovered somewhat from his excitement,
and quietly and in a low voice told us how he came to be there. He said
that when he was wounded on the works of Dolinsburg and left for dead,
that some one came along and stanched the flow of blood by binding some
cloth around the wound saturated with something--his wound was through
the right breast, touching slightly the right lung--that in the
afternoon, when a portion of the rebel army passed over the ground that
he occupied, Col. Whitthorne, his wife's brother, discovered him and had
him placed in one of his ambulances, bringing him away; had no knowledge
as to what his intention was--whether to take him to some place of
safety--some hospital, or let him die and bury him where his remains
could afterwards be found by his family; that up to within a few days
he had no idea where he was; that these old colored people had kept his
whereabouts a profound secret, except among a few of their race
whom they could trust; that when he found a force was stationed at
Dolinsburg, he got them to send there and give the information, so that
he might make some arrangement about getting away, for fear of recapture
by the enemy, and they had sent the boy that we met. He was anxious
to get away, and thought that he could bear being moved in some easy
conveyance to Dolinsburg in two or three days' travel. We consulted
together, and Capt. Day sent a messenger back with a letter to Col.
Harden, asking him to send an ambulance and a surgeon the next day,
we remaining with the Colonel until their coming. There was plenty of
fodder at the plantation barns, and the men took care of the horses.
Aunty prepared a sufficient quantity of wholesome food for ourselves. We
passed the night without much sleep, the Captain and I using our chairs
for beds, as there was not sufficient accommodation for us all; Mrs.
Anderson slept on the bed by her husband, and the men found comfortable
quarters in the stables. We enjoyed ourselves, however, hearing Aunt
Martha and Ham tell us how they had taken care of the Colonel; how
they had bathed and dressed his wound once each day with warm wat