'em to go straight
to blazes, while you go to Vicksburg."

"Thank you," said Dick, "I like to meet an obliging and polite man like
you. It helps even in war."

"Don't mention it. When I wuz a little shaver my ma told me always to
mind my manners, an' when I didn't she whaled the life out of me. An',
do you know, stranger, she's just a leetle, withered old woman, but if
she could 'pear here right now I'd be willin' to set down right in these
bushes an' say, 'Ma, take up that stick over thar an' beat me across the
shoulders an' back with it as hard as you kin.' I'd feel good all over."

"I believe you," said Dick, who thought of his own mother.

He followed the indicated path until he was out of sight of everybody,
and then he plunged into the bushes and marsh toward the river. When he
was well hidden he stopped and considered.

It was quite evident that he had wandered from the right road, but
it was no easy task to get back into it. There was an unconscious
Confederate cordon about him and he must pass through it somewhere. He
moved farther toward the river, but only went deeper into the swamp.

He turned to the south and soon reached firm ground, but he heard
Confederate pickets talking in front of him. Then he caught glimpses of
two or three men watching among the trees, and he lay down in a clump of
bushes. He might pass them as he had passed the others, but he thought
it wiser not to take the risk.

He was willing also to rest a little, as he had done a lot of hard
walking. His clothing was now dry, and the mud had dried upon it.

He turned aside into one of the deep ravines and then into a smaller one
leading from it. The bushes were dense there and he lay down among them,
so completely hidden that he was invisible ten feet away. Here he still
heard the mutter of the guns, which came in a long, droning sound, and
occasionally a rifle cracked at some point closer by. The Union army
was still busy and he felt a few moments of despondency. His dispatch
undoubtedly was of great importance, and yet he was not able to deliver
it. It was highly probable that for precaution's sake other messengers
bore the same dispatch, but he was anxious to arrive with his
nevertheless, and he wanted, too, to arrive first. The last now seemed
impossible and the first improbable.

The crackling fire came nearer. Owing to the lack of percussion caps,
Pemberton had ordered his men to use their rifles sparingly, but
evidently a co