“There ain’t any tellin’, Miss Margaret. They’ve got bands out, ’flictin’ the country.” Margaret rested her forehead upon her hands. “Captain Yeardley—it will put his life in danger to move him ... and then, move him where? Where, Tullius, where?” “Miss Margaret, I don’ know. Less’n ’twas somewhere in the woods or up on the mountain-side.” Margaret rose. “Get the wagon, then. We’ll make a bed for him, and do all we can, and then pray to God.... You’d better go by the old Thunder Run road and turn off up one of the ravines.” “Miss Margaret, Jim’s got a good head, an’ he kin tek the Captain away an’ tek care of him. I’se gwine stay at Three Oaks. I’se gwine stay with you an’ Miss Miriam.” Miriam’s startled voice came through the hall from the front porch. “Mother! mother, come here! Here’s a boy who says the Yankees are burning Mount Joy!” She did not wait for her mother, but came down the hall, at her heels a white-lipped, wild-eyed youngster of twelve. News came from him in gulps, like water from a bottle. He had been taking his father’s horse to be shod, and down near Mount Joy he had seen the Yankees coming up the road in time to get out of their way. He had gone through a gate into an orchard and had got down and hidden with the horse below a bank with elder growing over it. From there he had seen how the Yankees came through the big gate and over the garden and to the house.... After a while, when it was all on fire and there was a lot of noise and he couldn’t see much for the smoke, a little coloured girl had come creeping through the orchard grass. She told him the Yankees said they were going to burn every house in the country they could get at. And she said he had a horse, and why didn’t he go and tell people, so’s they could get their things out—and he thought he’d better, and so he had been telling them— How long since he had left the orchard? He didn’t know—he thought about three hours. Mahalah came running in. “O my Lawd, Miss Margaret! O my Lawd, de Yankees comin’ up de big road lak er swarm o’ bees! O my Lawd, dey kills an’ eats you!” “Nonsense, Mahalah! Be quiet! Tullius, go upstairs to the east room window and see how near they are.” Tullius returned. “They’ve got a mile an’ a half yit, Miss Margaret, an’ they ain’t marchin’ fast. Just kind o’ strollin’.” “How many?” “Hundred or two.” “Get the wagon as quickly as you can. If Jim can get down the farm road to the woods without their seeing him, the rest may be done. Tell Jim to hurry. Then you and he come and lift Captain Yeardley.” She turned and went upstairs toward Richard’s room. Going, she spoke over her shoulder to her daughter. “Miriam, get everybody together and make them take it quietly. Tell them no one’s going to harm them!”