TWO SOLDIERS RODE ALONG
A little later the children, still standing at the window, or near it, heard a great clatter of hoofs in the avenue, mingled with the lowing of cattle, the neighing of horses, and the shouts and yells of drivers. At first Buster John and Sweetest Susan, looking through the mist, could see nothing but a dense and moving mass of animals and men. But in a few moments they were surprised to see that the foragers in blue were bringing back the horses and cattle they had driven off. There was the old pony, ambling back to the lot; there were the carriage horses; and there were the milk cows and dry cattle. Accompanying the foragers, who were on foot, were two or three mounted men, and one of these wore a sword and was giving orders.
The grandfather, attracted by the children’s cries of surprise, had come to the window, and he stood there gazing at the spectacle in a bewildered way. It was more surprising to him than it was to the children. He could make nothing of it. He could only rub his eyes and look. Here were his horses, his mules, and his cattle coming back in a hurry, driven by the soldiers in blue. He went to the rear porch to see what would be done with the stock, and there, to his further surprise, he saw a soldier on guard. The soldier saluted the white-haired old man with the utmost deference, standing at “present arms” until the gentleman, somewhat rusty in military etiquette, had returned the salute. Then the soldier resumed his march back and forth.
Looking across to the lot, the old gentleman saw Aaron showing the foragers where to put the horses, the mules, and the cows, and with Aaron were two or three negroes who had refused to go off with the rest.
“What is the trouble here?” the old gentleman asked the soldier. “Are we prisoners?”
“No, sir,” replied the soldier, laughing; “we are here to protect this house from the foragers and stragglers. I was thinkin’ may be you’re some close kin to Uncle Cump.”
“Uncle who?”
“Uncle Cump, Cump—Tecump. We march by that name.”
The white-haired gentleman, regarding this as a soldier’s joke, went into the house. The children, still at the window, called attention to a soldier marching back and forth. Going on the front piazza, he saw a soldier marching on that side, and but for the garden fence doubtless there would have been a fourth soldier marching behind the kitchen.