er
just a little way down the mounting, in a valley that one good man with
a rifle kin defend."

"Thank you for your offer," answered Duncan. "But I'm not thinking of
settling in the mountains. I'm going to the West, if I can get there.
Now, to do that, I must cross the Valley, and I must have some
provisions. Can you sell me a side of bacon, a little bag of meal, and a
little salt?"

"What kin you pay with, Mister?"

"Well, I have no money, of course, except worthless Confederate paper,
but I have two pairs of Colt's 'Navy Six' revolvers, and I'd be glad to
give you one pair of them for my dinner, my horse's feed, and the
provisions I have mentioned."

"Now look-a-here, Mister," broke in the mountaineer, rising and
straightening himself to his full height of six feet four. "When you
come to my door you was mighty hungry. You axed fer a dinner an' a hoss
feed, an' I've done give 'em to you, free, gratis, an' fer nothin'. No
man on the face o' God's yearth kin say as how he ever come to Si
Watkins's house in need of a dinner an' a hoss feed 'thout a gittin'
both. An' no man kin say as how Si Watkins ever took a cent o' pay fer a
entertainin' of angels unawares as the preachers says. Them's my
_principles_, an' when you offer to pay fer a dinner an' a hoss feed,
you insults my _principles_."

"I sincerely beg your pardon," answered Duncan hurriedly. "I am very
grateful indeed for your hospitality, and as a Virginian I heartily
sympathize with your sentiment about not taking pay for food and
lodging, but----"

"That's all right, Mister. You meant fa'r an' squa'r. But you know how
it is. Chargin' fer a dinner an' a hoss feed is low down Yankee
business. Tavern keepers does it, too, but Si Watkins ain't no tavern
keeper an' he ain't no Yankee, neither. So that's the end o' that
little skirmish. But when it comes to furnishin' you with a side o'
bacon an' some meal an' salt, that's more differenter. That's business.
There's mighty little meal an' mighty few sides o' bacon in these here
parts, but I don't mind a-tellin' you as how my wife's done managed to
hide a few sides o' bacon an' a little meal from the fellers what come
up here to collect the tax in kind. One of 'em found her hidin' place
one day, an' was jest a-goin' to confisticate the meat when, with the
sperrit of a woman, that's in her as big as a house, she drawed a bead
on him an' shot him. He was carried down the mounting by his men, an'
p'r'aps he's don