“What made you start for the house when you saw me coming up?” said Leon, as the man sank his axe deep into the log on which he was chopping and paused to moisten his hands.
“Because I thought you was a rebel. I reckoned there was more coming behind you, and I wanted to be pretty close to my rifle. I didn’t know that I had got into a community of Union folks down here.”
Leon was astonished to hear the man converse. He talked like an intelligent person, and the boy was glad to have him express an opinion, for it was so much better than his own that he resolved to profit by it.
“I don’t know that you got in among Union people,” said Leon, “for I have seen more rebels to-day than I thought there was in the county; but all the same there are some Union folks here. You might have gone further and fared worse.”
“So I believe. When you came up you said you were out to tell everybody something. What were you going to say?”
It didn’t take Leon more than two minutes to explain himself. The man listened with genuine amazement, and when the boy got through he seated himself on the log and rested his elbows on his knees.
“How are you going to take this county out?” said he. “You haven’t got men enough to do any fighting.”
“No, sir; but we are going to do the best we can with what we have got.”
“That’s plucky at any rate. I suppose that if the rebels come in here to capture you, you will take to the swamp.”
“Yes, sir. That’s just what we intend to do.”