"Of course," said Corporal Grimm, "let him rest in peace, and dream sweet dreams of the coming glory of the Southern Confederacy." They stole noiselessly over the damp ground, occasionally chuckling with delight at the thought of their coming feast. The long hill was passed over and the barn reached, where the unsuspecting rebel turkeys were roosting. "This is delightful," thought Mr. Diggs, his short legs moving rapidly, in order to keep up with the rest of the company. "What an entertaining, amusing, and instructive chapter this will furnish for my book! This is one phase of soldier life. Night so black, so intensely black--hem--that one might write his name in chalk upon it. Dark, wild clouds and howling winds with thick banks of fog almost blocking the way, as six resolute, determined, dare-devil soldiers, of whom the modest writer was one--He, he, he!" chuckled Diggs to himself. "I'll make it capital." His ruminations were brought to a close by arriving at the tall, dark barn, where Sergeant Swords called a halt and solemnly informed his command that the desired turkeys were inside. "I say--hem, hem, hem!" began Mr. Diggs. "Well, don't make so much noise about it!" whispered Corporal Grimm, clutching him by the arm, "or we will have the old rebel and his five hundred niggers on us in no time." The door of the barn was locked, but this slight obstacle was soon overcome. "Quick!" whispered Sergeant Swords, and the men glided in. The loud barking of a dog from the house came to their ears, and the sound of angry voices. Tom Scott closed the large double door just as the nose of a ferocious dog came thump against them. "Hist!" said the sergeant. "I believe we are discovered." "What is it, old man?" came in shrill accents from the house. "Some one's in the barn stealing hosses." At this moment the turkeys, becoming alarmed at the very evident expressed intentions of the intruders, set up a loud "Quit, quit!" "They're stealing the turkeys. It's some of them thievin' Aberlitionists," said the old woman. "You bring the lantern, and I'll see," answered a deep voice, evidently that of the cross old rebel himself. "We're in for it now, boys," said Sergeant Swords, turning on the light from his dark lantern. "Hunt holes somewhere." Tom Scott had enough to do to hold the doors against the dog, which seemed determined to force an entrance. Corporal Grimm sprang into a meal chest, which he saw at the far end of the barn, and the lid closed down on him; two others found concealment behind a hay-mow, and Sergeant Swords and Mr. Diggs sprang up among the rafters, where the turkeys were roosting. "Oh, Lordy! I shall be killed, I know I shall!" wailed poor Diggs, as he scrambled up. The turkeys were now remonstrating loudly. "Stop your chin music!" said the sergeant. Tom Scott was still holding the doors when the old man and his wife came to them.