The matter was settled without much debate, and then we arranged our pillows, and prepared to go to sleep. We did sleep, but not long. There was more excitement in store for us. About two o’clock our cotton-gin was set on fire.
I need not stop to tell you how frightened I was when my brother dragged me out of bed and shouted in my ear that the plantation was burning up; how I looked out of the window as I pulled on my clothes, and saw the gin wrapped in flames; how our fellows rushed out of the house, and, after bustling about for a while in a state of intense excitement, getting in every body’s way, and accomplishing nothing, stood quietly by my father’s side, and saw twelve thousand dollars’ worth of cotton consumed; how we wondered and made wild guesses as to who the incendiary could be; and finally went back to bed, and lay for a long time talking the matter over. You can imagine all that, and will know just how we felt.
Excited as I was, I fell asleep again, but was awakened about daylight by the sound of horses’ hoofs in the yard. I ran to the window, and saw several mounted men waiting before the door. They were all booted and spurred, and some carried guns slung over their shoulders, while others had revolvers strapped about their waists.
A negro stood by, holding a splendid coal-black horse which belonged to father, and presently he came out of the house, armed like the others, sprang into the saddle, and the whole cavalcade started down the road at a rapid gallop.
I caught my sleeping companions by the shoulders, and, after a good deal of shaking and pulling, succeeded in getting them out of bed and to the window, just in time to catch one glimpse of the horsemen before they disappeared down a lane that led to the woods.
“Now I’ll jest tell you what’s the matter,” exclaimed Sandy. “What’s up, do you reckon?”
“They’ve gone out to look for the men who set fire to that cotton-gin,” replied Duke, fairly jumping into his trowsers. “That’s what’s up, and here we are in bed and sound asleep, like so many wooden boys.”
“Hurrah!” yelled Mark. “Here’s fun! I’d give something to know what else is going to happen this winter.”
As he said this, he jerked on his boots, thrust one arm into his coat, and started down stairs to talk to mother, and find out what it was that had taken father and his companions off in so great a hurry, while the rest of us brought out the guns, and began loading them with hands that trembled violently. We could not have been more impatient to get the weapons ready for use if a band of hostile Indians had at that very moment been approaching the house.
“I am going to put twelve buckshot in my gun,” said Herbert, “and if I meet the fellow who set fire to that gin, won’t I—won’t I wake him, eh?”