Year: 1873

looked hard at the lounge, advanced into
the room, and would no doubt have dis
covered me, only shout from the yard at
tracted his attention at that moment


He had not been gone five minutes when
girl came into the room with broom and
dustpan, and commenced vigorous clean
ing up. The dust was soon flying in every
direction, and pretty soon began to feel
tingling in the nose. felt that a sneeze
was coming If sneezed, she would dis
cover me, and if discovered, l would be
turned over to the soldiers and hung. If
ever abused anything willfully and mali
ciously, it was my nose. l twisted it, t,struck
it, pulled it, and at last started q stream of
blood. This saved me. The organ aban-
doned the idea of sneezing, and the girl
dashed her broom about without the least
idea that any one was listening to her
song


In few minutes she had the room ar
ranged to suit her, and picked up the broom
and pan, and went off, hoped to be left
to my meditations the balance of the day
but in a few minutes two women, one of
whom was the landlords wife, and the
other an acquaintance from the country,
came in, and the wife dumped herself down
on the lounge.


Isn't it dreadful" she asked, seeming
excited, "to think that Yankee spy has
been right in the house for whole day,
and none of us suspected any such thing ?"
| at is, indeed" responded the other,
and am not yet over my fright. won
der that he did not murder every one of
you--ughp' ..,l


Having got a subject, the two females
let their tongues loose, and for an hour
they did not change it. was berated,
abused, maligned. shot and hung in imag-
ination, and was glad when they found
something else to talk about. That some
thing else was a dog, which pushed open
the door and came trotting in. After a
turn around the room, he laid down, and l
should not have had any trouble if the
women had let him alone but the land
lords wife snapped her fingers at him, and
insisted that he jump up beside her. Just
as expected, the cur had no sooner reached
the lounge than he began snuffing and
barking, and directly crawled under to get
at me with his teeth. dared not speak to
pacify him, and remained quiet in hopes
that he would go away.


"The cat must be under the lounge, " re-
marked the wife. And she got off the bed
and was about to draw it out, when the
other one called her attention to something
on the street, and they both ran to the
window. Now was my chance at the dog,
and, as he came for me again, struck out
and gave him such rap on the nose that
he ran bowling from the room. The ladies
were busy, and gave the circumstance no
heed, and in few minutes left the room.


During the rest of the afternoon had
no visitors /; but just at dark, two or three
soldiers brought a drunken officer up stairs,
took him into the next room to mine, and
put him to bed, going away with many
jokes at his expense. AS soon as it was
fairly dark | crawled out brushed the dust
of, and stepped into the room occupied by
the sleeper. He was snoring "like a
trooper" and would have made no objec-
tion had pulled him out of bed Finding
the water pitcher, washed the blood from
my face, combed my hair, and made ready
to go down. ! at first thought to change
uniforms with the drunken officer, but re-
membering that my pass read for a lieuten-
ant ] only took the sleeper's fine gray
cloak. / had cigar, and this lit, and,
wrapped up in the cloak, boldly de-
scended the stairs. The barroom was,full
Of men, but passed by the door to the one
leading into the street without detection,
Reaching the street, turned up the road
leading south, and made my start for Old
Tavern. Soldiers were passing either way,
teams were driving about, and had no
fear except being run over as the night
was as dark as should have wished to
have made it myself. l did not expect TO
be able to pick up any information that
night, but my sole object was to get out Of
Stevensburg After walk of mile or SO,
/ found myself entirely clear of the town,
and out Of the territory Of the troops de-
Tending it, l came at length to an earth
work stretching across the road. A sentinel
cried "Haltv' as came up, and calling to
the corporal, that officer came forward with
lantern.


" Ah, excuse me, lieutenantr' he ex-
claimed, as he caught sight of my uniform.
"The man did not know that he was de-
tanning an officer" .q .aa8.