put his hand on my back,

"Sir," I said with my eyes flashing fire, and my heart throbbing, and
almost bursting with suppressed laughter, "you are insolent. I am a poor
orphan, unused to contact with coarse men. I have been raised a pet, and
no vile hand has ever been laid upon me until you just touched me. If
you touch me I shall scream. I shall call for help. What would you do,
you wicked, naughty man."

"Unbutton," said he as he pointed to my dress in front. "Call for help and
be darned. You are a smuggler, and I know it."

"O, my God," said I, with a stage accent, "has it come to this? Am I to be
robbed of all I hold dear, by a common Yankee corporal. Has a woman no
rights which are to be respected? Am I to be murdered in cold bel-lud,
with all my sins upon my head. O, Mr. Man, give me a moment to utter a
silent prayer."

"O, hush," said he, "and hold up your hands. There ain't going to be any
bel-lud. All I want is to go through you for quinine."

"Spare me, I beseech you," I said, as I held up my hands, and got in
position to knock him silly the first move he made. "I am no walking
drug store, I am a good girl." Around my awful form I draw an imaginary
circle. "Step but one foot within that sacred circle, and on thy head I
launch the cu-r-r-r-se of Rome, Georgia."

[Illustration: Gave a yell that could have been heard a mile 203]

"Let up on this Shakespeare, and get to busiess, said the corporal, as
he reached up to my neck to unbutton the top button of my dress. He was
looking at my dress, and wondering what he would find concealed within,
when I brought down both fists and took him with one in each eye, with a
force that would have knocked a mule down. He fell backwards, and gave a
yell that could have been heard a mile. Then one of his men started for
me and I knocked him in the ear, and he fell beside the corporal. The
other man was going to come for his share, when the officer who had been
stationed outside the lines rode up with his men and asked what was
the matter. The soldier-who was not hit said I had assassinated the
corporal. The officer said that was wrong, and women who would go around
killing off the Union army with their fists ought to be arrested. Just
then the corporal raised up on his elbow and tried to open two of the
blackest eyes that ever were seen. Turning to the officer, he said:

"That woman is a smuggler, and she struck me with a brick house!

"Ancient female," said the office