s I had a
touch of the small-pox, and was dying for a little food. They were
Christians enough to give me a dish of bread and milk, or something of
that sort, and cowards enough to keep so much out of the way, as not to
get a chance to look me in the face. They laid provisions on the ground,
and then walked away while I came up to get them. Though I didn't think
much of the fashion I was waited on, and had sometimes to quarrel with a
bull-dog for my supper, I don't believe I ever ate with a better
appetite in my life. The first bread of freedom, no matter how coarse, a
man eats after his escape from prison, is the sweetest morsel in nature.
And I do think it is a little pleasanter when he eats it at the risk of
his life."

Butler nodded his head.

"Well, after this," continued Horse Shoe, "I had like to have lost all
by another mishap. My course was for the upper country, because the
nearer I got to my own home the better I was acquainted with the people.
That scrummaging character, Tarleton, you may have hearn, scampered off,
as soon as ever Charlestown was taken, after Colonel Abraham Buford, who
was on his way down to the city when the news was fotch him of our
surrender. Buford accordingly came to the right about, to get out of
harm's way as fast as he could, and Tarleton followed close on his
heels. Think of that devil, major, trying to catch a man a hundred
miles away! It was a brazen hearted thing! considering, besides, that
Buford had a good regiment with him. When nobody thought it anything
more than a brag, sure enough, he overhauls Buford yonder at the
Waxhaws--onawares, you may say--and there he tore him all to pieces.
They say it was a bloody cruel sight, to see how these English troopers
did mangle the poor fellows. I doubt there wasn't fair play. But, major,
that Tarleton rides well and is a proper soldier, take him man to man.
It so happened that as I was making along towards Catawba, who should I
come plump upon, but Tarleton and his lads, with their prisoners, all
halting beside a little run to get water!"

"Again in trouble, sergeant! Truly you have had full measure of
adventures!"

"I was pretty near nonplushed, major," said Horse Shoe, with a broad
laugh, "but I thought of a stratagem. I let fall my under jaw, and sot
my eyes as wild as a madman, and twisted my whole face out of joint--and
began to clap my hands, and hurra for the red coats, like a natural
fool. So, when Tarleton and two or thr