he villainous scamps, headed
by Harney, mean to steal horses from Spring Bank to-night, hoping
by that means to engage you in a bit of a fight. In short, Harney
was heard to say, 'I'll have every horse from Spring Bank before
to-morrow morning; and if that Yankee miss appears to dispute my
claim, as I trust she will, I'll have her, too;' and then the bully
laid a wager that 'Major Alice,' as he called you, would be his
prisoner in less than forty-eight hours.

"I hope it is not true, but if he does come, please keep quietly in
the house, and let him take every mother's son of a horse. I shall
be around watching, but hanged if it will do to identify myself
with you as I wish to do. They'd shoot me like a dog."

To say that Alice felt no fear would be false. There was a paling of the
cheek and a sinking of the heart as she thought of what the fast-falling
night might bring. But her trust was not in her own strength, and
dismissing Jake from her presence, she bent her face upon the piano lid
and prayed most earnestly to be delivered from the approaching peril, to
know just what to do, and how to act; then summoning the entire
household to the large sitting-room, she explained to them what she had
heard, and asked what they must do.

"Shall we lock ourselves inside the house and let them have the horses,
or shall we try to keep them?"

It took a few minutes for the negroes to recover from their fright, and
when they had done so Claib was the first to speak.

"Please, Miss Ellis, Massa Hugh's last words to me was: 'Mind, boy, you
takes good keer of de hosses.' Massa Hugh sot store by dem. He not stay
quiet in de chimbly corner and let Sudden 'Federacy stole 'em."

"Dem's my theology, Miss Ellis," chimed in Uncle Sam, rising and
standing in the midst of the dark group assembled near the door. "I'se
for savin' de horses."

"An' I'se for shootin' Harney," interrupted the little Mug, her eyes
flashing, and her nostrils dilating as she continued: "I knows it's
wicked, but I hates him, an' I never tole you how I seen him in de woods
one day, an' he axes me 'bout my Miss and Mars'r Hugh--did they writ
often, an' was they kinder sparkin'? I told him none of his bizness, and
cut and run, but he bawl after me and say how't he steal Miss Ellis some
night and make her be his wife. I flung a rock at him, big rock, too,
and cut again. Ugh!"

Mug's face, expressive as it was, only reflected the feelings of th