lted bear's meat that you'll be welcome to; and may be
Cudjo can spare a little meal." His eye rested on Carl, whose fidelity
he knew. "Let that boy come with us! We will send the provisions by
him."

Carl was delighted with the honor, for Penn was likewise going back to
Mr. Villars with the negro.

XXVI.

_WHY AUGUSTUS DID NOT PROPOSE._

The valiant confederates, returning from the pursuit of the escaped
prisoners, proved themselves possessed of at least one important
qualification for serving the rebel cause. They were able to give a
marvellously good account of themselves. Whatever the military
authorities may have thought of it, the people believed that the little
band of Union men had been nearly annihilated.

In the midst of the excitement, Mr. Augustus Bythewood returned home,
and went in the evening to call upon, counsel, and console the daughters
of the old man Villars.

"O, Massa Bythewood!" cried Toby, in great joy at sight of him, "dey
been killin' ol' massa up on de mountain; and de young ladies--O, Massa
Bythewood! ye must do sumfin' for de young ladies and ol' massa!"

Mr. Augustus flattered himself that he had arrived at just the right
time.

"My dear Virginia! you cannot conceive of my astonishment and grief on
hearing what has happened to your family! I have but just this hour
returned to town, or I should have hastened before to assure you that
all I can do for you I will most gladly undertake. My very dear young
lady, be comforted, I conjure you; for it grieves me to the heart to see
how pale, how very pale and distressed, you look!"

Thus the amiable, the chivalrous, the friendly Gus overflowed with
eloquent sympathy and protestation, pressing affectionately the hand of
the "very pale and distressed" fair one, and bowing low his dark,
aristocratic southern curls over it; appearing, in short, the very
courteous, noble, and devoted gentleman he wasn't.

Virginia breathed hard, compressed her lips, white with indignation as
well as with suffering, and let him act his part. And the confident
lover did not dream that those eyes, red with grief and surrounded by
dark circles, saw through all his hypocritical professions, or that the
cold, passive little hand, abandoned through the apathy of despair to
his caresses, would have been thrust into the fire, before ever he would
have been allowed to win it.

"Surely," she managed to say in a voice scarce above a whisper, "if ever
we neede