lied Horse Shoe, "for you
may see that we shall soon be out of these woods, by the signs of open
country ahead. The last squad of sodgers that passed us, said that when
we came to the farms, we shouldn't be more than five miles from the
town, and the sun isn't above an hour high."

"In the hope of being soon housed, then, Mr. Robinson, I may confess to
you I am somewhat weary; but a good night's rest will put me in fair
condition for to-morrow's ride again."

After the lapse of an hour, the party were safely sheltered in a
tolerably comfortable inn at the village: and Mildred, aided by the
sedulous care of Henry, found herself well bestowed in the best chamber
of the house.

CHAPTER XL.

From Tarborough our travellers continued their route towards the Pedee,
by the main road which led through Cross creek, a small hamlet on Cape
Fear river, near the site of the present town of Fayetteville. The
general features of the country were even more forbidding than those I
have already described as characteristic of this portion of North
Carolina. Even to the present day, cultivation has done but little to
cheer up the natural desolation of those tracts of wilderness which lie
between the rivers. But at the early period to which the events I have
been detailing have reference, the journey undertaken by our little
caravan might be compared to that which is now frequently made through
the more southern extremity of the Union, from the Atlantic to the Gulf
of Mexico, an attempt seldom essayed by a female, and sufficiently
trying to the hardihood of the stoutest travellers. The forethought and
attention of Horse Shoe Robinson, however, contributed to alleviate the
pains of the enterprise, and to enable Mildred to overcome its
difficulties.

In the present alarmed and excited state of this province, the party
were less liable to interruption in this secluded and destitute section
of the country, than they might have been, had they chosen a lower and
more populous district; and the consciousness that every day's
perseverance brought them nearer to the ultimate term of their journey,
gave new vigor, at least, to Mildred's capacity to endure the privations
to which she was exposed. But few vestiges of the war yet occurred to
their view. The great wilderness, like the great ocean, retains no
traces of the passage of hostile bodies. Sometimes, indeed, the signs of
a woodland encampment were visible in the midst of the forest,