New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-09-30
I North Carolinian NIail-Rider.
BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.


was a lean, sallow, sinewy man,
mounted on sorry sorrel nag, who
proved, however. to have blood III
her, and to be fast walker and full
Of endurance. The mail-rider was tao
turn, natural habit for man who
rides alone the year round, over a
lonely road, and has nothingwhateve
to think of. He had been in the war
sixteen months, in Hugh Whites reg
iment-reckon you've heerd OF him?
"Confederate?"
"Which?"
sWas he on the Union or Confeder-
ate side?''
ooh, Union"
ssWere you in any engagements?'
ssWhich?"
"Did you have any hghting?'
ttNot reg'lar.'
"What did you do?'
"Which?"
"What did you do in Hugh Whites
regiment?'
ooh, just cavorted round the noun
tains."
"You lived on the country?'
s:Which?"
"Picked up what you could find, corn,
! bacon, horses?"
CHATS about so. Didn't ma re
! much difference which side was round,
! the country got cleaned out"
| "Plunder seems to have been the OBJ
ject?"
(WHICH"
''You got living out of the farm
ers?"
s'You bet"
Our friend and guide seemed to have
been iayhawlSer and mountain
marauder-on the right side His at
tachment to the word (which pre-
vented any lively flow ofconversation,
and there seemed to be only two
| trains of ideas running in his mind; one
was the subject of horses and saddles,
and the other was the danger OF the
! ford we were coming to, and he exhib-
tied q good deal of of ingenuity in en-
| deavoring to excite our alarm Here
turned to the ford from every other
conversational excursion, and after
! every silence ri do knows there's
any great danger; not if you know
the ford. Folks is carried away
! there. The Toe gets up sudden
| There's been right smart rain late
ly. Ii you're afraid you can git
set over in a dugout, and I'll take
your horses across. Mebbe you're
used to fording? It's a pretty bad
ford for them as don't know it. But
you'll get along, if you mind your eye.
There's some rocks you'll have to
look out for. But you'll be all right,
if you follow me-"
Not being very successful in raising
an interest in the dangers of his ford,
although he could not forego INDUCING
a malicious pleasure in trying to make
the strangers uncomfortable, he finally
turned his attention to trade. "This
boss Of mine" he said, ''is just the
kind OF brute-beast you want for this
country. Your HOSES is too heavy.
How'llyou swap for that one o'yourn?'
The reiterated assertion that the
horses were not ours, that they We're
hired, made little impression on him.
All the way to huntsville he kept re-
curing to the subject Of a trade The
/ instinct of 'tswap'' was strong in him.
When we met a yoke of. steers, he
turned round and bantered the owner
for a trade. Our saddles took his
fancy. They were OF the army pat
tern, and he allowed that one of them
would just suit him. He rode a small
flat English pad, across which was
flung the U. S. mail pouch, apparently
empty. He dwelt upon the fact that
his saddle was new and ours were old,
and the advantages that would &C
crue to us from the exchange. He
didn't care if they had been through
the. war, as they had, for he fancied
an army saddle The Friend answer
ed for himself that the saddle he rode
belonged to a distinguished Union Gen
eral, and had bullet in it that was
put there by a careless Confederate in
the first battle OF Bull Run, and the
owner would not part withit for mon
ey. But the mail-rider said he didn't
mind that. He wouldn't mind swap
ping his new saddle for my old one and
the rubber coat and leggins. Long be-
fore we reached the ford we thought
we would like to swap the guide, even
at the risk of drowning. The ford was
passed III due time, with no inconven-
fence save that Of wet feet, for the
stream was breast high to the horses;
but being broad and swift and full of
sunken rocks and slippery stones and
the crossing tortuous, it is not ford
to be commended There is a curious
delusion that rider has in crossing a
swift, broad stream. It is that he is
rapidly drifting up stream, while in
fact the tendency of the horse is
to go with the current
| Az 0II Duo-Inox-