or fortune,
the most unmalleable--occasionally nodded his head, as if answering the
calls of man's most welcome visitor. It was, therefore, with more than
ordinary contentment that our travellers, when again mounted, were
enabled to descry, in the first light of the morning, a group of
buildings seated upon an eminence about a mile distant, on the further
side of the cultivated lowland that stretched along the southern margin
of the river. The guide announced that this was the point of their
destination, and the intelligence encouraged the party to accelerate the
speed with which they journeyed over the plain. When they arrived at the
foot of the hill, the character of the spot they were approaching was
more distinctly developed to their view. The mansion, encompassed by a
tuft of trees that flung their broad and ancient limbs above its roof,
was of the best class of private dwellings, old and stately in its
aspect, and exhibiting all the appendages that characterized the seat of
a wealthy proprietor. It was constructed entirely of wood, in accordance
with a notion that prevailed at that period, no less than at the
present, that a frame structure was best adapted to the character of the
climate. It occupied the crest of a hill which commanded a view of the
river with its extensive plains; whilst, in turn, it was overlooked by
the adjacent tract of country bearing the name of the Cheraw Highlands.

As the party ascended this eminence, Henry, in the eager and thoughtless
satisfaction of the moment, put his bugle to his mouth and continued to
blow with all his might, deaf to the remonstrances of his sister, who
was endeavoring to explain that there was some want of courtesy in so
abrupt a challenge of the hospitality of the family. The blast was
interrupted by Horse Shoe's laying his hand upon the instrument, as he
gave the indiscreet bugler a short military lecture:

"You might fetch trouble upon us, Mister Henry: this here screeching of
horns or trumpets is sometimes a sort of bullying of a garrison; and if
an enemy should happen to be on post here--as, God knows, is likely
enough in such scampering wars as these, why you have set the thing past
cure: for it is cutting off all chance of escape, just as much as if the
people had been ordered 'to horse.' It leaves nothing for us but to
brazen it out."

An old negro was first startled by the summons, and appeared for a
moment at the door of one of the out-buildings, evinc