aid, speaking low, 'what in
thunder do you mean? This is the best chance we'll ever have.'
I was looking at the lady meanwhile in the most imploring
manner, and she was regarding me with a kind of a pleasant,
amused smile on her face. She saw, I guess, a mighty dirty
looking boy, whose nose and face were pinched and blue with
hunger, cold, loss of sleep, and hard knocks generally, and she
brought the business to a head at once. 'You men come right
in,' she said, as if she was the major-general commanding the
department. 'We have just finished our dinner, but in a few
minutes the servants can have something prepared for you,--and
I think you are hungry.' John, with the most aggravating mock
modesty that I ever saw in my life, began saying: 'We are very
much obleeged, ma'am, but we haven't the slightest occasion in
the world to eat, ma'am, and----' when I couldn't stand it any
longer for fear he would ruin everything after all. 'Madam,' I
said, 'please don't pay any attention to what my partner says,
for we are most desperately hungry.' The lady laughed right out
at that, and said, 'I thought so; come in.'

"She led the way into the basement story of the house, where
the dining room was, (all the rich people in the South have
their dining rooms in the basement,) and there was a nice warm
room, a dining table in the center, with the cloth and dishes
yet on it, and a big fireplace at one end of the room, where a
crackling wood fire was burning. I tell you, it was different
from our muddy camp on the bleak hillside, where the wind blows
the smoke from our fires of green logs in every direction about
every minute of the day. I sat down by the fire to warm my
hands and feet, which were cold. A colored girl came in and
commenced to arrange the table, passing back and forth from the
dining room to the kitchen, and in a short time the lady told
us that our dinner was ready, to sit up to the table, and eat
heartily. We didn't wait for a second invitation that time.
And, oh, what a dinner we had! There was a great pile of juicy,
fried beefsteak, cooked to perfection and tender as chicken;
nice, warm light bread, a big cake of butter, stewed dried
ap