"I sha'n't be gone long," the girl said."If he asks after me or Dan, make out we are looking about the place to see what is useful.
Don't let him know I have gone to Mount Pleasant, it might worry him."Dan at once agreed to accompany the girl to Mount Pleasant when he heard that she was going to get things for his master.
Looking about he found an old basket among the litter, and they started without delay by the one road from the clearing, which led, they had no doubt, to the town.It was about two miles distant, and was really but a large village.A few Federal soldiers from the camp hard by were lounging about the streets but these paid no attention to them.Lucy soon made her purchases, and then went to the house that had been pointed out to her as being inhabited by the doctor who attended to the needs of the people of Mount Pleasant and the surrounding district.Fortunately he was at home.
Lucy looked at him closely as he entered the room and took his seat.He was a middle-aged man with a shrewd face, and she at once felt that she might have confidence in it.
"Doctor," she said, "I want you to come out to see some one who is very ill.""What is the matter with him? Or is it him or her?""It is-it's-" and Lucy hesitated, "a hurt he has got.""A wound, I suppose?" the doctor said quietly."You may as well tell me at once, as for me to find out when I get there, then I can take whatever is required with me.""Yes, sir.It is a wound," Lucy said."His shoulder is broken, Ibelieve, by a pistol bullet.""Urnph!" the doctor said."It might have been worse.Do not hesitate to tell me all about it, young lady.I have had a vast number of cases on hand since these troubles began.By the way, Ido not know your face, and I thought I knew every one within fifteen miles around.""I come from the other side of the Duck river.But at present he is lying at a place called Woodford, but two miles from here.""Oh, yes! I know it.But I thought it was empty.Let me see, a man named Jenkins lived there.He was killed at the beginning of the troubles in a fight near Murfreesboro.His widow moved in here;and she has married again and gone five miles on the other side.Iknow she was trying to sell the old place.""We have not purchased it, sir; we have just squatted there.My friend was taken so had that we could go no further.We were trying, doctor, to make our way down south.""Your friend, whoever he is, did a very foolish thing to bring a young lady like yourself on such a long journey.You are not a pair of runaway lovers, are you?""No, indeed," Lucy said, flushing scarlet; "we have no idea of such a thing.I was living alone, and the house was attacked by bushwhackers, the band of a villain named Mullens.""Oh! I saw all about that in the Nashville paper this morning.
They were attacked by a band of Confederate plunderers, it said.""They were attacked by one man," the girl replied."They were on the point of murdering me when he arrived.He shot Mullens and four of his band and the rest made off, but he got this wound.And as 1 knew the villains would return again and burn the house and kill me, I and my old nurse determined to go southward to join my friends in Georgia.""Well, you can tell me more about it as we go," the doctor said."Iwill order my buggy round to the door, and drive you back.I will take my instruments and things with me.It is no business of mine whether a sick man is a Confederate or a Federal; all my business is to heal them.""Thank you very much, doctor.While the horse is being put in Iwill go down and tell the negro boy with me to go straight on with a basket of things I have been buying.""Where is he now?" the doctor asked.
"I think he is sitting down outside the door, sir.
"Then you needn't go down," the doctor said."He can jump up behind and go with us.He will get there all the quicker."In five minutes they were driving down the village, with Dan in the back seat.On the way the doctor obtained from Lucy a more detailed account of their adventures.
"So he is one of those Confederate officers who broke prison at Elmira," he said."I saw yesterday that one of his companions was captured.""Was he, sir? How was that?""It seems that he had made his way down to Washington, and was staying at one of the hotels there as a Mr.James of Baltimore.As he was going through the street he was suddenly attacked by a negro, who assaulted him with such fury that he would have killed him had he not been dragged off by passers-by.The black would hare been very roughly treated, but he denounced the man he had attacked as one of the Confederate officers who had escaped from the prison.It seems that the negro had been a slave of his who had been barbarously treated, and finally succeeded in making his escape and reaching England, after which he went to Canada; and now that it is safe for an escaped slave to live in the Northern States without fear of arrest or ill-treatment he had come down to Washington with the intention of engaging as a teamster with one of the Northern armies, in the hope when he made his way to Richmond of being able to gain some news of his wife, whom his master had sold before he ran away from him.""It served the man right!" Lucy said indignantly."It's a good thing that the slaves should turn the tables sometimes upon masters who ill-treat them.""You don't think my patient would ill-treat his slaves?" the doctor asked with a little smile.
"I am sure he wouldn't," the girl said indignantly."Why, the boy behind you is one of his slaves, and I am sure be would give his life for his master."Dan had overheard the doctor's story, and now exclaimed:
"No, sah.Massa Vincent do kindest of masters.If all like him, do slaves eberywbere contented and happy.
What was de name of dat man, sah, you was speaking of?""His name was Jackson," the doctor answered.
