held a part in the
colloquy, so did the dignity of labor annul the realization of his
infirmity, "then I'd be obleeged ter him ef--ef--ef he'd stay out'n
Tanglefoot Cove."

"So would I." The miller laughed uneasily. But for the corrugations
of time, one might not have known if it were flour or age that had so
whitened his long beard, which hung quivering down over the breast of
his jeans coat, of an indeterminate hue under its frosting from the
hopper. "He hev tuk up a tumble spite at Tanglefoot Cove."

The blacksmith nodded. "They say that he 'lowed ez traitors orter
be treated like traitors. But _I_ be a-goin' ter tell him that the
Confederacy hev got one arm off'n me more'n its entitled to, an' I'm
willin' ter call it quits at that."

"'Tain't goin' ter do him no good ter raid the Cove," an ancient farmer
averred; "an' it's agin' the rebel rule, ennyhows, ter devastate the
kentry they live off'n--it's like sawin' off the bough ye air sittin'
on." His eyes dwelt with a fearful affection on the laden fields; his
old stoop-shouldered back had bent yet more under the toil that had
brought his crop to this perfection, with the aid of the children whose
labor was scarcely worth the strenuosity requisite to control their
callow wiles.

"Shucks! He's a guerilla--he is!" retorted the blacksmith. "Accountable
ter nobody! Hyar ter-day an' thar ter-morrer. Rides light. Two leetle
Parrott guns is the most weight he carries."

The idiot's eyes began to widen with slow and baffled speculation.
"Whut--w-whut ails him ter take arter Tangle-foot? W-w--" his great
loose lips trembled with unformed words as he gazed his eager inquiry
from one to another. Under normal circumstances it would have remained
contemptuously unanswered, but in these days in Tanglefoot Cove a man,
though a simpleton, was yet a man, and inherently commanded respect.

"A bird o' the air mus' hev carried the matter that Tolhurst's troops
hed rid inter Tanglefoot Cove by mistake fur Greenbrier, whar they war
ter cross ter jine the Fed'rals nigh the Cohuttas. An' that guerilla,
Ackert, hed been ridin' a hundred mile at a hand-gallop ter overhaul
him, an' knowin' thar warn't but one outlet to Tanglefoot Cove, he
expected ter capshur the Feds as they kem out agin. So he sot himself
ter ambush Tolhurst, an' waited fur him _up_ thar amongst the pines an'
the laurel--an' he _waited_--an' _waited!_ But Tolhurst never came! So
whenst the guerilla war sure he hed es