IT was well that I was on the Federal captain\'s horse. He knew this sort of work and could do it quicker and more quietly than mine. Mine would have whinnied for the camp and watched for short cuts to it. Another advantage was the moon, and the hour was hardly beyond midnight when I saw a light in a window and heard the scraping of a fiddle. At the edge of a clearing enclosed by a worm fence I came to a row of slave-cabins. Mongrel dogs barked through the fence, and in one angle of it a young white man with long straight hair showed himself so abruptly as to startle my horse. Only the one cabin was lighted, and thence came the rhythmic shuffle of bare-footed dancers while the fiddle played "I lay ten dollars down." There were three couples on the floor, and I saw--for the excited dogs had pushed the door open--that two of the men were white, though but one wore shoes. On him the light fell revealingly as he and the yellow girl before him passed each other in the dance and faced again. He was decidedly blond. The other man, though silhouetted against the glare of burning pine-knots, I knew to be white by the flapping of his lank locks about his cheeks as he lent his eyes to the improvisation of his steps. His partner was a young black girl. I burned with scorn, and doubtless showed it, although I only asked whose plantation this was.

"This-yeh pla-ace?" The rustic dragged his words lazily, chewed tobacco with his whole face, and looked my uniform over from cap to spur. "They say this-yeh place belong to a man which his name Lu-ucius Ol-i-veh."

So! I honestly wished myself back in my old rags, until I reflected that my handsome mount was enough to get me all the damage these wretches could offer. Still I thought it safest to show an overbearing frown.

"To what command do you fellows belong?"

He spurted a pint to reply, "Fishe\'s batt\'ry."

"Oh! And where is the battery?"

"You sa-ay \'Whah is it?\'--ow batt\'ry"--he champed noisily--"I dunno. Does you? Whah is it?"

"It\'s twenty miles off; why are you not with it? What are you doing here?"

"You sa-ay \'What we a-doin\' hyuh?\' Well, suh, I mought sa-ay we ain\'t a-doin\' nuth\'n\'; but I"--he squirted again--"will sa-ay that so fah as you see what we a-doin\', you kin see, an\' welcome; an\' so fah as you don\'t see, it ain\'t none o\' yo\' damn\' busi-ness."<............