fense of the best
Government on earth had sometimes, if not often, experiences of which
those of Si Klegg are a strong reminder.'

The Publishers.

THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

TO THE RANK AND FILE

OF THE GRANDEST ARMY EVER MUSTERED FOR WAR.

THIS IS NUMBER FIVE

OF THE

SI KLEGG SERIES.

SI KLEGG

CHAPTER I. THE DEACON PROVIDES

RESORTS TO HIGHWAY ROBBERY AND HORSE STEALING.

THE Deacon was repaid seventyfold by Si's and Shorty's enjoyment of the
stew he had prepared for them, and the extraordinary good it had seemed
to do them as they lay wounded in the hospital at Chattanooga, to which
place the Deacon had gone as soon as he learned that Si was hurt in the
battle.

"I won't go back on mother for a minute," said Si, with brightened eyes
and stronger voice, after he had drained the last precious drop of the
broth, and was sucking luxuriously on the bones; "she kin cook chickens
better'n any woman that ever lived. All the same, I never knowed how
good chicken could taste before."

"Jehosephat, the way that does take the wrinkles out down here," said
Shorty, rubbing appreciatively the front of his pantaloons. "I feel as
smooth as if I'd bin starched and ironed, and there's new life clear
down to my toe-nails. If me and Si could only have a chicken a day for
the next 10 days we'd feel like goin' up there on the Ridge and bootin'
old Bragg off the hill. Wouldn't we, Si?"

"Guess so," acceded Si cheerily, "if every one made us feel as much
better as this one has. How in the world did you git the chicken, Pap?"

"Little boys should eat what's set before 'em, and ask no questions,"
said the father, coloring. "It's bad manners to be pryin' around the
kitchen to find out where the vittles come from."

"Well, I've got to take off my hat to you as a forager," said Shorty. "A
man that kin find a chicken in Chattenoogy now, and hold on to it long
enough to git it in the pot, kin give me lessons in the art. When I git
strong enough to travel agin I want you to learn me the trick."

The Deacon did not reply to the raillery. He was pondering anxiously
about the preservation of his four remaining chickens. The good results
manifest from cooking the first only made him more solicitous about the
others. Several half-famished dogs had come prowling around, from no one
knew where. He dared not kill them in daylight. He knew that probably
some, if not all, of them had masters, and the wors