e, as for me to find out when I get there; then I can take
whatever is required with me."

"Yes, sir. It is a wound," Lucy said. "His shoulder is broken, I
believe, by a pistol bullet."

"Umph!" the doctor said. "It might have been worse. Do not hesitate to
tell me all about it, young lady. I have had a vast number of cases on
hand since these troubles began. By the way, I do not know your face,
and I thought I knew everyone within fifteen miles around."

"I come from the other side of the Duck River. But at present he is
lying at a place called Woodford, but two miles from here."

"Oh, yes! I know it. But I thought it was empty. Let me see, a man named
Jenkins lived there. He was killed at the beginning of the troubles in a
fight near Murfreesboro. His widow moved in here; and she has married
again and gone five miles on the other side. I know she was trying to
sell the old place."

"We have not purchased it, sir; we have just squatted there. My friend
was taken so bad that we could go no further. We were trying, doctor, to
make our way further south."

"Your friend, whoever he is, did a very foolish thing to bring a young
lady like yourself on such a long journey. You are not a pair of runaway
lovers, are you?"

"No, indeed," Lucy said, flushing scarlet; "we have no idea of such a
thing. I was living alone, and the house was attacked by bushwhackers,
the band of a villain named Mullens."

"Oh! I saw all about that in the Nashville paper this morning. They were
attacked by a band of Confederate plunderers, it said."

"They were attacked by one man," the girl replied. "They were on the
point of murdering me when he arrived. He shot Mullens and four of his
band and the rest made off, but he got this wound. And as I knew the
villains would return again and burn the house and kill me, I and my old
nurse determined to go southward to join my friends in Georgia."

"Well, you can tell me more about it as we go," the doctor said. "I will
order my buggy round to the door, and drive you back. I will take my
instruments with me. It is no business of mine whether a sick man is a
Confederate or a Federal; all my business is to heal him."

"Thank you very much, doctor. While the horse is being put in I will go
down and tell the negro boy with me to go straight on with a basket of
things I have been buying."

"Where is he now?" the doctor asked.

"I think he is sitting down outside the door, sir."

"Then you needn't