"'Let them take both my shedsfull ($00000000); let them take it all! Sooner than submit, or consent to be Reconstructed, I would give my very life even, for the sake of the Confederacy!'
Mrs. Faro still looked serious.
"'Moses,' she said, with quivering lips, 'have you not got, hidden away somewhere, a twenty-shilling gold-piece($2,500,000)?'
"Ghastly pale turned the proud Confederate, and he could barely stammer,—
"'Ye-ye-yes.'
"'Well,' murmured the matron, 'it's the gold they intend to take, I reckon.'
"That was enough. Frantically tore Mr. Faro into the street; desperately raced he to the city limits; madly flew he past the pickets and sentinels; swiftly scoured he down the Boynton Plank Road. A Yankee bayonet was at his bosom.
"'Reconstruction!' shouted he.
"They took him before the nearest post-commandant, and he only said,—
"'Let me be Reconstructed.'"