eplied the farmer, "and if
they left any one behind to watch the house, they were so sly about it
that I never seen it."

"Of course it was broad daylight when Tom came to your house," said
Rodney. "Well, how do you know but that man Swanson saw him when he went
in?"

"I don't know it," replied Merrick. "But even if he did see Percival go
in, these 'Mergency men won't never say a word to me about it, kase they
know well enough that if they should hurt a hair of my head, some of my
friends would bushwhack 'em to pay for it. They would send word over
into the next county, and some fellers from there would ride over some
dark night and set my buildings a-going, or pop me over as quick as they
would a squirrel, if they could get a chance at me. That's the way we do
business nowadays, and that's the reason we don't never go to the door
when somebody rides up and hails the house after dark."

"Why, I wouldn't live in such a country," said Rodney.

"What would you do, if everything you had in the world was right here
and you couldn't sell it and get out?" replied the farmer. "You'd stay
and look out for it, I reckon, and make it as hot as you could for any
one who tried to drive you away. But driving is a game two can play at,"
added Merrick, with a low chuckle; and Rodney noticed that he ceased
speaking once in a while and turned his head on one side as if he were
listening for suspicious sounds. "I don't say I have rode around of
nights myself and I don't say I aint; but I do say for a fact that if
you go over into the next county, you won't find so many men there who
make a business of shooting Union folks as there used to be. Some parts
of the kentry t'other side the ridge looks as though they had been
struck by a harrycane that had blew away all the men and big boys."

This was what Captain Howard must have meant when he warned Rodney that
every little community in the Southern part of the State was divided
into two hostile camps. This was partisan warfare, and Rodney wanted to
be a partisan.

"Is that the sort of partisan you are, Tom?" he inquired, when Merrick
went out again to see if it would be safe for them to go into the
kitchen and get supper. "I wish I had had sense enough to stay at
home."

"I wish to goodness you had," said Tom honestly. "Not but that you've
got as much sense as most boys of your age, but you know as well as I do
that the Barrington fellows used to say you didn't always know what you
w