tted out that the
Confederates discovered that the fastnesses of Hog Mountain concealed a
strong and dangerous organisation of Union men. There was a good deal
of indignation in the valley when this state of affairs became known,
and there was some talk of organising a force for the purpose of
driving the mountaineers away from their homes. But somehow the Valley
never made up its mind to attack the Mountain, and, upon such
comfortable terms as these, the Mountain was very glad to let the
Valley alone.

After a while the Valley had larger troubles to contend with.
Gullettsville became in some measure a strategic point, and the left
wing of one army and the right wing of the other manoeuvred for
possession. The left wing finally gave way, and the right wing marched
in and camped round about, introducing to the distracted inhabitants
General Tecumseh Sherman and some of his lieutenants. The right wing
had learned that a number of Union men were concealed on the mountain,
and one or two little excursion parties were made up for the purpose of
forming their acquaintance. These excursions were successful to this
extent, that some of the members thereof returned to the friendly
shelter of the right wing with bullet-holes in them, justly feeling
that they had been outraged. The truth is, the Poteets, and the
Pringles, and the Hightowers of Hog Mountain had their own notions of
what constituted Union men. They desired to stay in the United States
on their own terms. If nobody pestered them, they pestered nobody.

Meanwhile league Poteet's baby had grown to be a thumping girl, and
hardly a day passed that she did not accompany her father in his
excursions. When the contending armies came in sight, Teague and his
comrades spent a good deal of their time in watching them. Each force
passed around an elbow of the mountain, covering a distance of nearly
sixty miles, and thus for days and weeks this portentous panorama was
spread out before these silent watchers. Surely never before did a
little girl have two armies for her playthings. The child saw the
movements of the soldiers, the glitter of the array, and the waving of
the banners; she heard the dull thunder of the cannon, and the sharp
rattle of the musketry. When the sun went down, and the camp-fire shone
out, it seemed that ten thousand stars had fallen at her feet, and
sometimes sweet strains of music stole upward on the wings of the
night, and slipped heavenward through th