Joe then made bold to tell her what he had heard—that Mr. Pruitt and several other soldiers had come home because they heard their families were suffering for food. Miss Carter was very much interested, and wanted to go with the lad to visit Mrs. Pruitt.
“But I can’t go,” said Joe; “there’s nobody to do my work in the printing-office. I’ll send Mrs. Pruitt word to-night by some of the negroes.”
“No, no!” cried Miss Carter, “that will never do. I’ll see my cousin and tell him about it. You must go to-day, and I’ll go with you. Oh, it mustn’t be postponed; you must go this very afternoon! Why, what is this little newspaper you are printing out here in the woods? The woman may be suffering.”
Miss Carter saw her cousin, the editor, and lost no time in telling him about Mr. Pruitt and his family. The editor, who was one of the best of men, was so much interested that, instead of sending Joe with the young lady, he went himself, taking in his buggy a stout hamper of provisions. When they came back, Miss Carter’s eyes were red, as if she had been crying, and the editor looked very serious.
“I’m very glad you didn’t go,” he said to Joe, when Miss Carter had disappeared in the house.
“Was anybody dead?” asked Joe.
“No,” replied the editor. “Oh, no; nothing so bad as that. But the woman and her children have been in a terrible fix! I don’t know who is to blame for it, but I shall score the county officers and the Ladies’ Aid Society in the next paper. These people have been actually in a starving condition, and they look worse than if they had gone through a spell of fever. They are nothing but skin and bones. The main trouble is that they live in such an out-of-the-way place. The house is a mile from the public road, and hard to find.”
“I heard,” said Joe, “that the provost-marshal had something to do with holding back supplies that ought to have gone to Mr. Pruitt’s family.”
“How could he?” asked the editor; and then he added, quickly: “Why, of course he could; he is in charge of everything. He is judge, jury, lawyer, and general dictator. Who told you about it?”
“I heard it in town,” said Joe.