The servants were already engaged in preparing supper for the family. Just before supper was announced, a daughter of the planter came in. I should judge that she was about sixteen years old.
"Mother," said she, "what are you doing with that man here?"
"He's one of Johnson's men, and he's going down to hunt up the Yankee beef-cattle," was the reply.
"Well, you had better watch him, or he'll steal something before he leaves."
"Behave yourself, and not insult the man in that way," said the mother.
"I do behave. He ought to be insulted. You are going down to hunt up the Yankees, are you?" she continued, addressing me. "You are a pretty object to be engaged in hunting up Yankees. The sight of one pair of blue breeches would make six such spared monuments of God's mercy as you are get up and leave."
At the table the impudent thing would watch me, and whenever she could get my eye, she would make faces at me, which she carried to such an extreme that her mother slapped her ears to make her be still.
Whether the whole family were loyal, or only the daughter, or whether the daughter was secesh, and tried only to draw out my true character, the reader alone must judge; my duties were such that I dare not trust any of them.
I reached Clifton without being disturbed.
On the arrival of the troops to within two miles of Lawrenceburg, I was sent ahead to that place, with instructions to go out on the military road toward Florence, and see if Johnson was coming. I had an escort of fourteen men from the 11th Illinois Cavalry. When we had gone three miles on the military road, we came suddenly upon a dwarfish looking man, mounted on a horse, who was wonderfully frightened at our unexpected meeting.