"OLD LEE'S" ADVENTURES.

299

into a room, which appeared to be the kitchen and sleepingroom of a large family. Two young women and several children were crowded around the fireplace, while the door of the house was left wide open, after the fashion of doors in the South country. There was something stewing in a skillet on the hearth; which I noticed, because the old man, as he sat and talked with me, spat his tobacco-juice over it (not always with accuracy) at the back-log. I remarked that the country appeared very quiet.

"Quiet, to what it was," said the old man, with a wicked twinkle of the eye. "You 've probably heard of some of the murders and robberies through here."

I said I had heard of some such irregularities.

"I've been robbed time and again. I've had nine horses and mules stole."

"By whom?"

"The bushwhackers. They 've been here to kill me three or four times; but, as it happened, the killing was on t'other side."

"Who were these men?"

"Some on 'em belonged in Massissippi, and some on 'em in Tennessy. They come to my house of a Tuesday night, last Feb'uary. They rode up to the house, and surrounded it, a dozen or fifteen of 'em. Old Lee!' they shouted, we want ye!' It had been cloudy 'arly in the evening, but it had fa'red up, and as I looked out thro' the chinks in the logs, I could see 'em moving around.

"Come out, Old Lee! we 've business with ye!'

"You've no honest business this hour o' the night,' I

says.

"Come out, or we'll fire your house.'

"Stand back, then,' I says, while I open the doo'.'

"I opened it a crack, but instead of going out, I just put out the muzzle of my gun, and let have at the fust man.

"Boys! I'm shot!' he says. I'd sent a slug plumb thro' his body. Whilst the others was getting him away, I loaded up again. In a little while they come back, mad as

devils. I did n't wait for 'em to order me out, but fired as they come up to the doo'. I hit one of 'em in the thigh. After that they went off, and I did n't hear any more of 'em that night."

"What became of the wounded men?"

"The one I shot thro' the body got well. The other died."

"How did you learn?"

66

They was all neighbors of mine. They lived only a few miles from here, over the Tennessy line. That was Tuesday night; and the next Sunday night the gang come again. I was prepared for 'em. I had cut a trap through the floo'; and I had my grandson with me, a boy about twelve year old; and he had a gun. We'd just got comfortably to bed, when some men rode up to the gate, and hollah'd, Hello!' several times. I told my wife to ask 'em what they wanted. They said they was strangers, and had lost their road and wanted the man of the house to come out. I drapped thro' the hole in the floo', and told my wife to tell 'em I wa'n't in the house, and they must go somewhar else.

"We'll see if he 's in the house,' they said. The house is all open underneath, and I reckoned I'd a good position; but befo'e I got a chance at ary one, they 'd bust in. They went to rummaging, and threatening my wife, and skeering the children. I could hear 'em tramping over my head; till bimeby the clock struck; and I heerd one of 'em sw'ar, Ten o'clock, and nary dollar yet!' After that, I could see 'em outside the house; hunting around for me, as I allowed. I fired on one. My God!' I heered him say, he's killed me!' I then took my grandson's gun, and fired again. Such a rushing and scampering you never heered. They run off, leaving one of their men lying dead right out here before the doo'. We found him thar the next morning. He laid thar nigh on to two days, when some of his friends come and took him and buried him."

"Why did those men wish to murder you?"

"They had a spite agin me, because they said I was a Union man."

A ROADSIDE ENCOUNTER.

301

"They called him a Yankee," said one of the young

"I was born in Tennessy, and have lived either in Tennessy or Massissippi all my days. But I never was a secessioner; I went agin the war; and I had two son-in-law's in the Federal army. Both these girls' husbands was fighting the Rebels, and that's what made 'em hate me. They was determined to kill me; and after that last attempt on my life, I refugeed. I went to the Yankees, and did n't come back till the war wound up. There's scoundrels watching for a chance to bushwhack me now."

"Old Lee'd go up mighty quick, if they wa'n't afeared," remarked one of the daughters.

66

- and now I

"I'm on hand for 'em," said the old man, understood that wicked sparkle of his eye. Killing is good for 'em. A lead bullet is better for getting rid of 'em than any amount of silver or gold, and a heap cheaper!"

Two miles north of Old Lee's I came to the State boundary. While I was still in Mississippi, I saw, just over the line, in Tennessee, a wild figure of a man riding on before me. He was mounted on a raw-boned mule, and wore a flapping gray blanket which gave him a fantastic appearance. The old hero's story had set me thinking of bushwhackers, and I half fancied this solitary horseman or rather mule-man — to be one of that amiable gentry. He had pursued me from Corinth, and passed me unwittingly while I was sitting in Old Lee's kitchen. He was riding fast to overtake me. Or perhaps he was only an innocent country fellow returning from town. I switched on, and soon came near enough to notice that the mule's tail was fancifully clipped and trimmed to resemble a rope with a tassel at the end of it; also that the rider's face was mysteriously muffled in a red handkerchief.

I was almost at his side, when hearing voices in the woods. behind me, I looked around, and saw two more mounted men coming after us at a swift gallop. The thought flashed through my mind that those were the fellow's accomplices. One to

one had not seemed to me very formidable; but three to one would not be so pleasant. I pressed my iron gray immediately alongside the tassel-tailed mule, and accosted the rider, determined to learn what manner of man he was before the others arrived. The startled look he gave me, and the blue nose, with its lucid pendent drop, that peered out of the sanguinary handkerchief, showed me that he was as harmless a traveller as myself. He was a lad about eighteen years of age. He had tied up his ears, to defend them from the cold, and the bandage over them had prevented him from hearing my approach until I was close upon him.

"It's a kule day," he remarked, with numb lips, as he reined his mule aside to let me pass at a respectful distance, - for it was evident he regarded me with quite as much distrust as I had him.

At the same time the two other mounted men came rushing upon us, through the half-frozen puddles, with splash and clatter and loud boisterous oaths; and one of them drew from his pocket, and brandished over the tossing mane of his horse, something so like a pistol that I half expected a shot. "How are ye?" said he, halting his horse, and spattering me all over with muddy water. "Right cold morning! Hello, Zeek!" to the rider of the tassel-tailed mule. "I did n't know ye, with yer face tied up that fashion. Take a drink?" Zeek declined. "Take a drink, stranger?" And he offered me the pistol, which proved to be a flask of whiskey. I declined also. Upon which the fellow held the flask unsteadily to his own lips for some seconds, then passed it to his companion. After drinking freely, they spurred on again, with splash and laughter and oaths, leaving Zeek and me riding alone together.

"DIDN'T I see your horse tied to Old Lee's gate?" said Zeek. And that led to a discussion of the old hero's character.

"Is he a Union man ?"

"I kain't say; but that's the story they tell on him. One of the men he killed was one of our neighbors; a man we used to consider right respectable; but he tuke to thieving during the wa', and got to be of no account. That was the way with a many I know. You may stop at a house now. whur they'll steal your horse, and like as not rob and murder ye."

Zeek told me he lived on the edge of the battle-field; and I engaged him to guide me to it. He thought I must be going to search for the body of some friend who fell there. When I told him I was from the North, and that my object was simply to visit the battle-field, he looked at me with amaze

ment.

"I should think you'd be afraid to be riding alone in this country! If 't was known you was a Yankee, and had money about you, I allow you'd get a shot from behind some

bush."

"I think the men who would serve me such a trick are very few."

"Thar was right smart of 'em befo'e the wa' closed. They 'd just go about robbing, — hang an old gray-haired man right up, till he'd tell whur his money was. They called themselves Confederates, but they was just robbers. They've got killed off, or have gone off, or run out, till, as you say, there an't but few left."