other direction--with
Charleston."

"It's a fact, Sally, the Colonel is the d---- busy man in these parts.
Not content with a big plantation and three hundred niggers, he looks
after all South Carolina, and the rest of creation to boot," said our
host.

"Tom will have his joke, Madam, but he's not far from the truth."

Seeing we were dripping wet, the lady offered us a change of clothing,
and retiring to a chamber, we each appropriated a suit belonging to our
host, giving our own to a servant, to be dried.

Arrayed in our fresh apparel, we soon rejoined our friends in the
sitting-room. The new garments fitted the Colonel tolerably well, but,
though none too long, they were a world too wide for me, and as my wet
hair hung in smooth flat folds down my cheeks, and my limp shirt-collar
fell over my linsey coat, I looked for all the world like a cross
between a theatrical Aminodab Sleek and Sir John Falstaff, with the
stuffing omitted. When our hostess caught sight of me in this new garb,
she rubbed her hands together in great glee, and, springing to her feet,
gave vent to a perfect storm of laughter--jerking out between the
explosions:

"Why--you--you--look jest like--a scare-crow."

There was no mistaking that hearty, hoydenish manner; and seizing both
of her hands in mine, I shouted: "I've found you out--you're a
"country-woman" of mine--a clear-blooded Yankee!"

"What! _you_ a Yankee!" she exclaimed, still laughing, "and here with
this horrid 'secesherner,' as they call him."

"True as preachin', Ma'am," I replied, adopting the drawl--"all the way
from Down East, and Union, tu, stiff as buckram."

"Du tell!" she exclaimed, swinging my hands together as she held them in
hers. "If I warn't hitched to this 'ere feller, I'd give ye a smack
right on the spot. I'm _so_ glad to see ye."

"Do it, Sally--never mind _me_," cried her husband, joining heartily in
the merriment.

Seizing the collar of my coat with both hands, she drew my face down
till my lips almost touched hers (I was preparing to blush, and the
Colonel shouted, "Come, come, I shall tell his wife"): but then turning
quickly on her heel, she threw herself into a chair, exclaiming, "_I_
wouldn't mind, but the _old man would be jealous_." Addressing the
Colonel, she added, "_You_ needn't be troubled, sir, no Yankee girl will
kiss _you_ till you change your politics."

"Give me that inducement, and I'll change them on the spot," said the
Colonel.

"N