cquainted with a
woman what pizened her husband, an' they kep' her in jail a consider'ble
time--a senseless thing ter do ter jail her, ter my mind, fur he war a
shif'less no-'count fool, an' nobody but her would hev put up with him
ez long ez she did. The jedge an' jury thunk the same, fur they 'lowed
ez she war crazy--an' so she war, ter hev ever married him! They
turned her loose, but she never got another husband--I never knowed a
man-person but what was skittish 'bout any unhealthy meddlin' with his
vittles."

She paused to count the stitches on her needles, the big shadow of
her cap-ruffles bobbing on the daubed and chinked log walls in antic
mimicry, while down Ethelinda's pink cheeks the slow tears coursed at
the prospect of such immurement.

"Jes' kase I showed a stranger his path----"

"An' two hundred an' fifty mo'--spry, good-lookin' youngsters, able to
do the rebs a power o' damage."

"I war 'feared they'd git capshured. That man, the leader, he stopped
me down on the bank o' the creek whar I war a-huntin' of the cow, an' he
axed 'bout the roads out'n the Cove, an' I tole him thar war no way out
'ceptin' by the road he had jes' come, an' a path through a sorter cave
or tunnel what the creek had washed out in the spur o' the mounting, ez
could be travelled whenst the channel war dry or toler'ble low, an' he
axed me ter show him that underground way."

"An' ye war full willin," said Mrs. Brusie, in irritation, "though ye
knowed that thar guerilla, Ackert, hed been movin' heaven an' earth ter
overhaul Tolhurst's command before they could reach the main body. An'
hyar they war cotched like a rat in a trap."

"I was sure that the Cornfeds, ez hed seen them lope down inter the
Cove, would be waitin' ter capshur them when they kem up the road
agin--I jes' showed him how ter crope out through the cave," Ethelinda
sobbed.

"How in perdition did they find thar way through that thar dark hole?--I
can't sense that!" the old man suddenly mumbled.

"They had lanterns an' some pine-knots, grandad, what they lighted, an'
the leader sent a squad ter 'reconnoitre,' ez he called it. An' whilst
he waited he stood an' talked ter me about the roads in Greenbrier an'
the lay o' the land over thar. He war full per-lite an' genteel."

"I'll be bound ye looked like a 'crazy Jane,'" cried the grandmother,
with sudden exasperation. "Yer white sun-bonnet plumb off an' a-hangin'
down on yer shoulders, an' yer yaller hair all a