"Anywhere you wish, sir, if you will only give me time to gather up this here bark," said the sergeant, who, hereupon, heedless of the objurgation of the trooper, deliberately untied the handkerchief from his neck, and spreading it out upon the ground, threw into it the pieces of bark he had been cutting, and then, taking it in his hand, rose and walked after the soldier.
He was conducted to the troop, who were waiting in the road the return of the men that had been despatched on this piece of service.
"Quick, quick, move yourselves! we have no time to lose," cried out the officer in command of the detachment, as Horse Shoe and his guide came in view: and then, after an interval of silence, during which the sergeant walked heavily to the spot where the troop waited for him, he added with an impatient abruptness, "Make few words of it, sir. Your name, where from, and where are you going?"
"My name, captain—if your honor is a captain, and if I miscall you, I ax your honor's pardon: my name is—is—Stephen Foster, Steve most commonly."
"Well, whence do you come?"
"From Virginny."
"Fool! why do you stop?"
"You axed, I think, where I was going? I was going to get on my horse that's broke his bridle, which I see you have cotched for me: and then back to my young mistress, sir, that was taken sick over here at a gentlewoman's house on Pedee. She thought a little sassafras tea might help her along, and I was sent out to try and get a few scrapings of the bark to take to her. I suppose I must have rode out of my way a matter of some eight or ten miles to find it, though I told her that I thought a little balm out of the garden would have done just as well. But women are women, sir, and a sick woman in particular."
"This fellow is more knave than fool, I take it, cornet," said the officer to a companion near him.
"His horse seems to have been trained to other duties than gathering herbs for ladies of delicate stomachs," replied the other.