re nuff. Two was jus wounded, and one of dese was de captain. Him de
same man what make his men put down de silber and tings dey was takin
from ole missus. Den dey carry all on em to de grate house and bury de
dead ones. De captain and de oder wounded man was tuck into de house,
and ole missus she knowd de captain, and she cried mitily bout his bein
shot. Well, he talk plenty bout his wife and modder, and Miss Alice's
modder nurse him; but he died, and his grave's yonder wid ole massa and
missus. De oder man he got well and went away, and berry soon arter dat
Miss Alice's fadder and modder got married. Dar come de judge. He hab
seen you, and he ride out ob de road to come see you."

"Toney, I shall come to see you again, and you must tell me more about
the family and these people about here; you must tell me everything."

"You musn't tell anybody I tell you anyting. De judge mity quare man;
he don't like for people to know all I knows."

The judge rode up, and Toney with great respect arose and saluted him.
"Ah!" said he, "you have found this old hermit, have you? Toney is the
chronicle of the neighborhood--a record of its history from the day of
its first settlement. I hope he has amused you. He is upwards of ninety
years old, and retains all his faculties in a remarkable degree."

"I have been quite entertained with his history of the descent of the
river with your ancestors. He seems to remember every incident, and
says your father was wounded at the Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee
River."

"He is quite right, sir. It was a perilous trip. My grandfather was a
man of wonderful energy and determination. He pioneered the ancestors
of almost every family in this vicinage to this place. There was a
large grant of land from the Spanish Government made here and divided
among his followers, every foot of which is in the possession of their
descendants to-day, except perhaps one thousand acres which were
swindled from my family by a most iniquitous decision of a jury,
influenced by an artful old Yankee lawyer. This spot here, sir, was the
nucleus of the first settlement which in a few years spread over the
country."

"This county I believe, sir, was once represented in the State of
Georgia as the County of Bourbon, at the time this State with Alabama
constituted a part of that State."

"My father was elected to represent the county, but he never took his
seat. We continued to be governed by the laws of Spain which we fo