o take the sorrel mare and spread
the alarm through the neighborhood."

"Yes, sir."

Hardly had Mr. Peyton and his overseer hurried away before Waggie indulged
in a little yelp, to ease his own feelings. He found things rather cramped
at the bottom of the hogshead, to which he had been transferred from
George's pocket; he longed to have more leeway for his tiny legs.

"If you had given that bark a minute ago," muttered George, "you would
have betrayed us, Master Waggie."

"Oh! oh! oh!" whispered Watson; "I am so cramped and stiff I don't know
what will become of me. This is the most painful experience of the war."

There would have been something amusing in the position of the hiders if
it had seemed less dangerous. Watson was now sitting with legs crossed, in
tailor fashion; on his lap was George; and upon George's knee jumped
Waggie.

"You're getting tired too soon," said George. "We will be here some time
yet."

He was quite right, for it was not until dusk that they dared leave their
curious refuge. Sometimes they stood up, when they got absolutely
desperate, and had it not been that the tall hedge protected him, the head
of Watson would assuredly have been seen from the Peyton mansion. At last
they cautiously abandoned the hogshead, and crept into the pines in front
of them. When it was pitch dark the fugitives pushed forward in a
northwestwardly direction, until they reached a log cabin, at a distance
of about four miles from their point of departure. Within the place a
light was cheerily burning.

"Shall we knock at the door?" asked Watson, in some doubt.

"I'm very hungry," laughed George. "I think I could risk knocking
anywhere--if I could only get something to eat."

"Well, we might as well be hung for sheep as lambs," observed Watson. "Let
us try it."

He had begun to think that it was only the question of a few hours before
he and George would be in the hands of the enemy.

They knocked at the door. It was half opened by a long, lanky man, with a
scraggy chin-beard, who looked like the customary pictures of "Uncle
Sam."

"What is it?" he asked the travelers. There was a sound of voices within.

Was it prudent to play the blind man once again? Or had this fellow heard
of the excitement at the Peyton mansion? Watson bethought himself of a
method of finding out whether or not he should be endowed with sight.

"Are we anywhere near Squire Peyton's?" he demanded.

"'Bout four miles off, or fiv