A Daughter of the Union

  CHAPTER XXIII

  RECAPTURE

  "We must not stay here, Jeanne," said Dick, after his sister had finishedher narrative. "We must strike out for the Mississippi River. Once therewe may see some of our boats. That will be our best show for getting toour lines."

  "Is it far to the river, Dick?"

  "I don't know, Jeanne. If I felt sure that Colonel Peyton would send youto our men, I would let you go on with him, but after the treatment givenyou, I don't like to let you go back."

  "No; let me stay with you, Dick. I feel as if I never wanted to see arebel again."

  "You are liable to see a good many of them before we are out of this,"remarked Dick. "The woods are full of them. I fear----"

  "What?" asked Jeanne, as the lad paused.

  "For you, sister. It will be a long, hard journey. I wish I had knownjust how matters stood and I would have left you where you were. Youhave shown yourself a brave girl, and it will take all your courage andresolution now to stand up under the perils we will have to encounter. Iwish we had some money. The Johnnies aren't averse to taking our moneyfor all their devotion to their cause. It would help us wonderfully."

  "See here, Dick!" Jeanne took a roll of bills from her dress. "Will thisbe enough?"

  "Where did you get it?" cried Dick in delight. "Why, this is fine!"

  "Father gave it to me just before I left," answered Jeanne. "He littlethought that it would help us both to get back to him. I know AuntClarisse would have taken it if she had remembered telling me to hide it."

  "Father will have a settling with Uncle Ben and his wife," cried the boy,his eyes flashing. "I'd just like to meet the lady myself. I don't thinkshe'd like what she would hear!"

  "I know it," and the girl looked at him admiringly. "I just feel as if mytroubles were all over. What a soldier you are, Dick!"

  "You are a pretty good one yourself," answered Dick. "I had no idea,Jeanne, that you could stand fire as you did on that transport. Why, Ihave known big men to be afraid in a battle."

  "It's the blood," observed the girl, sagely. "How could we be other thanbrave, when our ancestors fought in the Revolution? We just can't help it."

  Dick laughed.

  "Ancestors don't seem to help some fellows I know," he said. "You'd besurprised at some of the things they do. They play sick, fall in behindthe rest of us, or do anything in the world to get out of the way ofthe bullets. The queer part of the whole thing is that those who exposethemselves the most rarely get hurt while the shots seek the cowards."

  Thus conversing the two pursued their journey. Darkness came on, and Dickproposed a halt and rest for the night.

  "There are so many swamps," he said, "and so many of those things theycall bayous that I like to see where I am going. You won't be afraid tostay out all night, will you? There isn't a house in sight, and it mightnot be safe for us to go to it if there were."

  "I am not afraid with you, Dick. But it does look rather ghost-like,doesn't it, with all that moss hanging from the trees?"

  "Yes; the forest is not so fine as our own Adirondacks. I don't like thiscountry anyway. There are cypress swamps and malaria every time you turnround. Malaria has killed more of the boys than all the shots the rebsever fired. You won't get sick, will you?"

  "I stood New Orleans in the summertime," said the girl, "and they saiddown there that anybody who could live there through the summer could liveanywhere. But you have not told me how you came to be down here."

  "Our regiment was sent to Corinth," answered Dick. "With a few othersI was taken prisoner during the battle there. General Van Dorn sent us toJackson, and from there we were to be taken by rail to Richmond, Virginia.For some reason the orders were changed, and we were marched on foot toyour camp. What they intended to do with us is more than I know. I tellyou, I was glad to be free again."

  "You are so pale," said Jeanne, touching him gently. "Are you well, Dick?"

  "Fine! Just need a good square meal to set me up all right," answeredthe boy cheerily. "I haven't had very much to eat since you girls set mefree. Just what I could find in the woods. Herbs and wild grapes, andpersimmons. I eat the green ones mostly."

  "But why?" asked Jeanne mystified. "The ripe ones are ever so much better.I like them now, although I didn't at first."

  "The green ones are best if you don't have much to eat," rejoined Dick."They are fine to draw the stomach up to fit the supply. Say, Jeanne,don't you wish we had some of mother's doughnuts?"

  "You poor, poor boy," cried Jeanne laughing, but there were tears in hereyes. "I wish we were where we could get them. Will the war last muchlonger, Dick?"

  "I am afraid so," was the lad's reply. "The rebs have played the mischiefthis fall, and it looks as if all our work had to be done over again. Now,Jeanne, you go to sleep, or you won't be fit to travel to-morrow."

  "And what will you do?"

  "Watch while you sleep. Never mind me. I am used to it. I have often stoodguard, and can do it just as well as not."

  "I don't believe that anything will bother us, brother. I wish you wouldsleep too."

  "No," said Dick sturdily, "not now."

  Jeanne tried to obey him but sleep would not come to her. The dark pineswere on all sides of them. The owls hooted dismally, and the chill windsobbed and moaned fitfully in the pine trees. Presently Dick stooped overher.

  "Are you cold, Jeanne?"

  "Yes, Dick. And I can't sleep a bit. Can't we talk, or walk, or dosomething?"

  "We will walk," decided Dick. "I think that the horse must be rested bythis time. What is his name?"

  "Robert E. Lee," answered Jeanne in a hesitating tone fearing that Dickmight not like the animal to be so called. "Bob called him 'Rel' forshort, and so do I because I don't like the full name."

  "Lee is a fine general," commented Dick. "If we had had him on our sideto begin with, the war would have been over by this time. I hope the horseis worthy of his name. Take my hand, Jeanne, and we will start."

  Throwing the rein over his shoulder Dick guided himself by the starsand the brother and sister again took up their journey to the westward.Slowly they proceeded, stopping occasionally to rest and picking theirway carefully through the forest. At last, just at the break of day,they came to a clearing in the woods in which stood a cabin. The bluesmoke curled invitingly from the chimney, and in the open door stood avenerable darky.

  "It's darkies," cried Dick joyfully. "They will give us something to eat."

  They hurried forward. The old man stared at them as they approached him.

  "Could you give us some breakfast, sir?" asked Dick. "We are willing topay well for it. We are Unionists."

  "'Meriky," called the old man excitedly, "hyar's two ob Massa Linkum'sfolks wantin' sumthing ter eat. Yes, suh; kum in, suh. We'll gib yer whatwe've got. Kum in!"

  Gladly they entered. A bright looking colored woman surrounded by half adozen pickaninnies of all ages and sizes from two to fifteen was busilypreparing the morning meal. She bustled forward bowing and courtesyingas they entered.

  "Kum in an' welcome," she said. "Lawsie, you is one ob Massa Linkum'ssojers sho' nuff. Hain't neber seed one befo'. We all jest lubs FadderAbraham, suh."

  "And the horse?" said Dick suggestively.

  "Dat's all right, suh. Hyar, Geo'ge Washington! Done yer see de gem'man'shoss a stan'ing dere? Gib him sum fodder."

  With homely but cheerful hospitality they pressed the viands upon them.It seemed to Jeanne that nothing had ever tasted so good before, andshe could not but gaze in wonder at the quantity of hominy, molasses,cornbread and rye coffee that Dick managed to stow away.

  "What would it have been if he hadn't eaten the green persimmons," shewondered.

  "You all is a moughty long ways from your lines," remarked the old manas Dick told them that he been taken prisoner and was making his escape."Dere's sojers all 'bout in dese hyar woods. 'Clar ter goodness I donesee how yer gwine ter git away from 'em."

  "We'll manage," said Dick hopefully. He
felt now that he could face all ofVan Dorn's brigade. "Take this, my friend, and tell us the best road toreach the Mississippi River."

  "Thankky kindly, massa," said the old darky, taking the dollar bill thatDick gave him with the eagerness of a child. "See hyar, 'Meriky, it'sLinkum money. Good Linkum money!"

  "Sho' nuff it am," cried 'Merica examining it. "Thankky, suh; and you too,missy. Ef yer eber sees Massa Linkum tell him how we all lubs him, an'dat we am a lookin' fohwa'd ter resting in his bosom."

  "I will," said Jeanne with quick courtesy as a suspicious sound came fromDick's direction. "Perhaps some day you will see him for yourself."

  "De Lohd grant it," came from the negroes fervently. "De good buk donepromised dat we shall lie in Fadder Abraham's bosom, an' we knows we will.Tell him we's 'spectin' it suah ter kum ter pass."

  "Though how Lincoln is going to take them all into his bosom passes mycomprehension," was Dick's laughing comment as they went on their way.

  "I think that he has done it already, Dick," said the girl with truerinsight than the boy. "They know it too, poor souls! I hope that theywill get to see him. I think if I were a negro I would walk all the wayto Washington to do it."

  They were fortunate enough to obtain some ears of corn from the home ofa poor white, the woman being so suspicious of them that she would notpermit them to enter her house. She gladly however took the money theyoffered and gave them the corn.

  To all inquiries concerning the Mississippi River they were told that ifthey kept on in the same direction that they were going they would reachit in time.

  "All of which is very specific," growled Dick as he threw himself undera tree and declared a halt. "I wonder if any of them ever saw the river intheir lives."

  "I don't believe that they have," said Jeanne. "I found out in New Orleansthat these people that they call 'poor whites' are very ignorant. Butwe'll reach it some way, Dick."

  "Yes; I begin to think that we will," said Dick complacently. "I wish thatI had a Confederate uniform though. These clothes are rather conspicuous."

  "Dick," cried Jeanne in horrified tones, "you would not wear that uniformfor a minute, would you?"

  "Wouldn't I?" chuckled Dick. "I wish I had a chance to try. Then we wouldnot have to skulk along this way but would go boldly to the nearest townand board a train, and there we'd be!"

  "I would not wear one," declared Jeanne.

  "It wouldn't change my principles," said Dick. "The clothes don't makethe man only in the eyes of other people, and that is what we want now. Iwould be just as true a Unionist as I am now, and it would be much saferfor us both. A uniform and a gun are just what I need. I am going to getthem!"

  He rose determinedly as he spoke and helped Jeanne on the horse.

  "Get on too, Dick," she pleaded. "You have walked all the time and yourshoes are in tatters. Please get up too."

  To please her Dick climbed up before her, and they started off at a briskpace. Suddenly from a bend in the road before them a body of rebel cavalrycantered into view. Jeanne tittered a cry of alarm but Dick setting histeeth made a quick dash into the woods.

  The rebels had seen them, however, and giving vent to their terrible yell,they dashed in pursuit.

  "Surrender," cried the leader as they drew near the hapless pair."Surrender!"

  "Never!" cried Dick, furiously urging his horse to greater speed. A showerof bullets fell about them. The horse stumbled and then swayed heavily.Dick leaped from the animal's back and swung Jeanne to the ground justas the poor brute fell. Throwing his arms about his sister the boy facedthe men defiantly.

  "You are our prisoner, Yank," yelled the leader as they surrounded them.

  "My sister," came from the lad's lips. His face was very pale and adespairing look came into his eyes. He tottered and fell as he spoke.

  "Dick!" shrieked Jeanne, frantically flinging herself beside him. "Dick,Dick!"

  "Wounded," was the terse remark of the Captain as he made a briefexamination. "By George, but he showed pluck to face us as he did! Lookhere, boys."

  Turning back the lad's shirt he showed a gaping wound in his chest. With acry of agony at the sight, the world turned dark to Jeanne, and she fellprostrate across the form of her brother.