y the trials of his
difficult situation.

As yet he did not know whether he had fallen into the hands of friend or
foe, for the night was cloudy and dark, and he could not see what uniform
the pickets wore.

"What do you belong to?" demanded the spokesman of the picket trio.

"I belong to the army," answered Tom, with admirable simplicity.

Our soldier boy, as the reader already knows, had been well "brought up."
He had been taught to tell the truth at all times; and he did so on the
present occasion, very much to the confusion, no doubt, of the rebel
soldiers, who had not been brought up under the droppings of the sanctuary
in a New England village.

"B'long to the army--do you?" repeated Secesh, who must have thought Tom a
very candid person.

"Yes, sir, I belong to the army," added the prisoner.

"I s'pose you won't mind telling us what army you belong to, 'cause it
mought make a difference in our calculations," added the spokesman.

Tom did not know but that it might make some difference in his
calculations, and for this reason he was exceedingly unwilling to commit
himself before he ascertained upon which side his questioners belonged.

"Can you tell me where I am?" asked Tom, resolved to use a little strategy
in obtaining the desired information.

"May be I can," replied the picket.

"Will you do so?"

"Sartin, stranger--you are in the woods," added Secesh; whereat his
companions indulged in a wholesome chuckle, which assured Tom that they
were human, and his hopes rose accordingly.

"Thank you," replied Tom, with infinite good nature.

"You say you belong to the army, and I say you are in the woods," said the
soldier, repeating the double postulate, so that the essence of the joke
should by no possibility fail to penetrate the cerebellum of his auditor.

Tom was perfectly willing to acknowledge that he was in the woods, both
actually and metaphorically, and he was very much disturbed to know how he
should get out of the woods--a problem which has puzzled wiser heads than
his, even in less perplexing emergencies. He was fearful that, if he
declared himself to be a Union soldier, he should share the fate of others
whom he had seen coolly bayoneted on that eventful day.

"Now, stranger, s'pose you tell me what army you b'long to; then I can
tell you where you are," continued the soldier.

"What do you belong to?" asked Tom, though he did not put the question
very confidently.

"I belong to the