ich a little girl apparently about five years old stood
rocking. The group was a very imposing one. As I entered, I gave a tap
upon the door, which caused the mother to turn towards me; but she did
not speak, waiting, it would seem, for me to introduce my business. I
apologized for my unceremonious entrance, saying, that I had learned she
was formerly a resident in the states; and that I being also from
thence, felt some interest in her and her family. She beckoned me to a
seat, and after some time, told me she was born in Philadelphia, but
that, having married a Kentuckian, she moved there, and lived some eight
or nine years in that state--that her husband, at the expiration of that
time, had taken his family to Little Rock, Arkansas, where they resided
one year, and that from thence they had come to the place where I found
them.

Here there was a pause; in fact, I discovered that the poor woman's
voice faltered the moment she approached the subject of her arrival at
her present residence. The silence was broken by the child, who stood
rocking the cradle, and who said, "This is a bad place, ain't it, Ma?
Here the bad men live that killed Pa." At this the mother burst into
tears. As she did so, she kindly told the child to hush.

After the mother's tears had partially subsided, I told her to talk to
me without restraint; that I had visited the settlement on the other
side of the river on government business, which I expected to transact,
and leave in a very few days. I here was guilty of falsehood. I had not
visited the settlement for government, of course, but to pursue my
iniquitous course of gambling with the refugees.

The woman implored me to be watchful; that I was in the midst of the
most abandoned description of men that could possibly be conceived of;
and that they would make a victim of me the more readily, on account of
my extreme youth. I told her that they could want nothing of me, for the
simple reason that I had nothing valuable about me. She assured me that
it was not always avarice which tempted these men to deeds of blood.
They had butchered her poor husband in the very house where we were,
within hearing of herself and children, and when all were imploring that
his life might be spared. And yet money was not the temptation. She then
gave me a history of the cruel murder of her husband, which was as
follows:--

Doctor ---- was educated a physician in the city of Philadelphia, though
a native of Ken