"Make a move and you are a dead man. And, miss, you sit there, too."
The old fellow turned as white as a sheet and dropped back into the chair as if he had been shot.
"Now, sir, the best thing you both can do is to keep quiet and not a hair of your head shall be harmed."
Hour after hour passed until the clock struck one. The old man and his daughters were both nodding in their chairs. I waked Jim and told him to watch so the old fellow would not be playing any games on us. I went to bed and to sleep, and did not awake till sunrise. There was an old negro woman bustling around getting breakfast. We told the man and his daughter they could go anywhere in the house, but they must not go out until we left. The old man jumped to his feet and turned on me like a wildcat and said:
"You will pay dearly for last night's work."
"All right; you need not think that we are going to give you a chance to inform your confederate friends. You know this is all fair in war times. Jim, go see to the horses while I watch."
He soon returned and said that the horses were all right. We then sat down to the breakfast table without waiting for an invitation. Jim asked the old man if he wouldn't sit up and have some breakfast with us. The man snorted out with an oath,
"I would die before I would eat with a Yank."
Old aunty's eyes rolled around like saucers, and she said, "May de good Lord hab mercy on us all."