"Glad of your company," said Sprowl, riding gayly alongside. "What's your business in town, stranger?"
"Well," replied Penn, "I don't mind telling you that my business is to see if I and my horse can find something to do for old Tennessee."
"Ah! cavalry?" suggested Lysander, well pleased.
"I should prefer cavalry service to any other," answered Penn.
"There's where you right," said Sprowl; and he proceeded to enlighten Penn on the prospects of raising a cavalry company in Curryville.
"Did you meet any person on the road, travelling north?"
"What sort of a person?"
"A young feller, rather slim, brown hair, blue eyes, with a half-hung look, a perfect specimen of a sneaking abolition schoolmaster."
"I—I don't remember meeting any such a person," said Penn, as if consulting his memory. "I met two men, though, this side of old Bald. One of them was a rather gentlemanly-looking fellow; but I think his hair was black and curly."
"The schoolmaster's har is wavy, and purty dark, I call it," said one of Sprowl's companions.