The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-18


the bright bed OF embers IN the fireplace
and lifting another, rubbed il on roll of
rags 10 free It OF ashes. Meantime loud
cackling in the h6nhOdse gave token that
old Speckle and Susan were not of one
mind in the matter of nest building. and
the din was much increased when the red
rooster lifted his voice in sympathy with
Speekle's domestic woes.
Bet" said Judith, solemaly, after a long
pause, thar some IN on on my mind; and
sponge. If l don't tell it soon it'll choke
me-"
''Then you'd better tell it fore nam
comes back responded her phlegmatic
sister.
Judith put down her iron.
It's this sis. Nam flows that Johnny's
run the mules off to Hickory Hollow but
that's not my b'lief. / How Johnnys many
miles from the Hollow. He'd never a-run
off, nohow. if somebody hadn't a-put the
The girls eyes grew misty and he. voice
trembled. "Oh, sis it's all my cnils
Johnny warn't asleep last night .wAe l 1
was s'posin He amt gone to tic DRY
Hollow; he's down in Bearheaven swamp,
and if the Yanks find him and chase him,
takin him to be man in the bresh and
briers, he'll chance it to be shot fore he'd
give up airy one O them mules and if any
thing was to happen to our Johnny it would
break my heart ii shOly would
Judith gazed at her sister tearfully The
latter thought moment
"Oughtnt pap and mann to know it?"
No; what's the use o tellin' EN-? Pap
look for Johnny and mann would give me
a tongue lashin' for putin notions in
JOhnny'S head"
With this Judith walked to the window
and as she did so she gave cry.
Approaching the cabin from Oakville was
a squad OF bue-coated cavalry The thick
dust rolling in dark pillows around the
knees of the horses, passed into Il gray
cloud, which wrapped its sullen garments
about the April breeze and hOated down
the zigzag fence, sitting the fragrant
breath of the sassafras blossoms and blind
ing the startled blue eyes of the wild vio-
let's.
The troop was met at the gate by john
with Susan and the girls behind him. A
brief dialogue ensued, in the course of
which Cline answered truthfully the in
quiries in regard to his stock, telling the
story of Johnny's flight in the night with
the mules and his mothers consequent
anxiety. But the account did not satisfy
the officer in charge, and he ordered the
stable to be searched. The search proving
fruitless, he began to question Cline afresh,
when Susan stepped forward:
My husbands given yer true word,
sir. We had two mules, but our little boy,
our onliest boy-his brother was killed in
Virginia-my boy he's run off with the
mules and we don't know whar he is. We
How he's gone up in the hills Char we
use to live, but we amt certain"
Susan paused and grasped the gate post
nervously. Mr.. officer, if you run acrost
a little sandy-haired boy, with two bay
mules and a yaller dog, please be mercitul
sooner then give up airy one of them
mules
The squad rode off fifty yards and halted,
anXiously watched by the little group at
the gate The commander was inclined to
doubt the existence of the small boy. Some
one had hidden the mules, it was evident,
than in the swamp to the south, the near
est cover Offering a chance of successful
concealment. With the arrival of this de-
cision the troop wheeled and rode rapidly
down the winding lane leading to Bear
heaven swamp.
shut upY' Said Susan to Judith, who, on
the departure of the soldiers, had begun to
sob. Shut right up and go to your
ironin'."
With an effort the girl controlled herself
II amt cryin for nothin' and I won't be
shut up no longer. You think I'm takin'
the. magistrates, but amt; it's grief. You
Dry Hollow, but yer 'llow wrong. Johnny
and them mules are down yonder in Bear
heaven, and them Yanks are on his track
to hunt him, like he was a wild beast. But
thar amt no time to talk. l can't stand
it to stay here no longer. I'm a-goln' to
Johnny"
across the stable yard she fled. Over the
fence scarcely seeming to touch 1t, on in
a diagonal direction toward a thick growth
of young pines she flew. The raiders had
a few moments start of her but their
course lay along the winding lane, and
Judith knew that by taking short cuts
shorten the distance a third. Every foot
of ground was as well known to her as to
the cotton tailed rabbit that jumped up be-
fore her or the startled quail that rose
whiZZing from the broom Sedge. Fortu-
nately, she was clad in brown homespun,
whose hue was simi . 50 that of the tree
trunks and her hair TO III yellow tint of
last years broomsedge which surged about
her as she ran.
At intervals she saw between the pines
and over the sedge the heads of the cav
alrymen. They were riding at full speed
along the curving road AS she reached
a rise in the field a jaybird flew UP and lit
upon a persimmon tree and began to sum-
mon his kindred with q shrill note. Fear
inG' discovery, the girl crouched in the
sedge, and the ,downy seed, floating about
her. chung to her gown and frosted her
hair. Above her thin, flushed cheeks her
dark blue eyes cleaned like bits of pol
ished steel. She had stopped just in time,
for at the cry of the bird the men looked
toward her. She saw, with beating heart
that she had escaped their gaze for the
squad rode on.
Judith sprang UP and sped down the in
cline. Before her rose a wood, the south
ern boundary of the sedge field Once in
this cover her flight could not be seen from
the road. She rushed through the black
berry briars, caught the top rail of the
fence with both hands and swung over it
like q boy.
swift, but her brain went fasterI She be-
lieved she knew the place where the boy
had hidden himself and the mules. About
in the deepest part of the swamp, was a
small knoll which rose above the encircling
morass like tiny island. 1t mas thickly
fringed with cane and further concealed
from view by the branches of large tree
which had been felled by some OpOssum
hunter. Johnny and she had discovered
the spot while looking for a strayed cow.
Down through the wood she ran like a
young doe. The cool gloom was grateful to
her heated face but she did not smell the
fragrance of the wild honeysuckleS nor the
yellow Jasmine bells that brushed her brow.
Reaching the morass overshadowed by
great gum and cypress trees and dotted by
tufts of watergrass, she leaped from hill
lock to hillock over the black mud. Here
and there on the leaf-strewn pools rose
bubbles of marsh gas that broke as her
light steps shook the clumps Of quaggy
grass and cane roots.
She stopped a moment to listen. She
heard nothing but the hammering of a
log cock on a dead gum tree and the tiny
bark of a squirrel. Her feet were covered
with mud above the ankles, and her breath
ing was quick; but the bourne was almost
Continuing her flight, she came to one
of the creeks which wound through the
narrow, it was deep. Too wide to be
leaped, too full of dead sticks and BRAN
bles to be swum, crossing seemed well-nigh
impossible.
a fallen tree that might offer precarlous
bridge. Upward her despairing glance was
met by a muscadine, which hung like
great green chandelier over the dark water.
Taking a forked stick, she leaned over the
creek and drew the vine toward her. Pull
ing stoutly to test the strength of its at
back a few steps to gain momentum then
swung like a pendulum full twenty feet
over the water, and dropped lightly on the
other side
came unsteady. and her muddy, briar-torn
ankles trembled.