“You all is a moughty long ways from your lines,” remarked the old man as Dick told them that he been taken prisoner and was making his escape. “Dere’s sojers all ’bout in dese hyar woods. ’Clar ter goodness I done see how yer gwine ter git away from ’em.”
“We’ll manage,” said Dick hopefully. He felt now that he could face all of Van Dorn’s brigade. “Take this, my friend, and tell us the best road to reach the Mississippi River.”
“Thankky kindly, massa,” said the old darky, taking the dollar bill that Dick gave him with the eagerness of a child. “See hyar, ’Meriky, it’s Linkum money. Good Linkum money!”
“Sho’ nuff it am,” cried ’Merica examining it. “Thankky, suh; and you too, missy. Ef yer eber sees Massa Linkum tell him how we all lubs him, an’ dat we am a lookin’ fohwa’d ter resting in his bosom.”
“I will,” said Jeanne with quick courtesy as a suspicious sound came from Dick’s direction. “Perhaps some day you will see him for yourself.”
“De Lohd grant it,” came from the negroes fervently. “De good buk done promised dat we shall lie in Fadder Abraham’s bosom, an’ we knows we will. Tell him we’s ’spectin’ it suah ter kum ter pass.”
“Though how Lincoln is going to take them all into his bosom passes my comprehension,” was Dick’s laughing comment as they went on their way.
“I think that he has done it already, Dick,” said the girl with truer insight than the boy. “They know it too, poor souls! I hope that they will get to see him. I think if I were a negro I would walk all the way to Washington to do it.”
They were fortunate enough to obtain some ears of corn from the home of a poor white, the woman being so suspicious of them that she would not permit them to enter her house. She gladly however took the money they offered and gave them the corn.
To all inquiries concerning the Mississippi River they were told that if they kept on in the same direction that they were going they would reach it in time.