"Traded the mule. When I was drivin' the beast off it struck me that he might be made to serve us a bit, so I drove a bargain." "Did you give the people to understand that he was yours?" "Not a bit of it, lad; I ain't tryin' that kind of business even when I'm hungry. I told the truth; but claimed that the beast was under my protection, an' I'd be willin' to leave him for the few things we might need. It ain't certain but I'd got what I asked for without the mule, though it was better to have a reg'lar trade made. Pitch into the ham, and later, it may be we can get some bread." We did not wait for the second invitation; but began chipping off bits of the meat, eating greedily regardless of the fact that it was uncooked, when I saw that Darius was making no effort toward getting his share. "Why don't you eat?" I asked as I gave my father a small handful of the uninviting food. "I'm the surgeon now, an' till this job is finished I reckon I can contrive to get along without more in my mouth than a piece of terbacco. It's mighty lucky I laid in a good supply before we left Pig Point." The true-hearted old sailor had provided us lads with a meal, and now proposed to dress my father's wound before attending to his own wants, which must have been greater than ours because he had performed more work. I resolved then and there, that however much against him might be appearances, I would never believe him guilty of any mean act toward his comrades, and in the future he should have the full half of anything which might come into my possession. Darius washed and bandaged father's wound; raised the bed of hay that he might recline more comfortably; fastened the door in such a manner that there would be no token on the outside of our occupancy, and not until all this had been done did he give heed to his own necessities. "We're not so bad off here as we might be," the old man said in a tone of content as he whittled away at the small remnant of ham, while we lads were stretched at full length on the hay. "I'm allowin' that whatever happens, the Britishers won't look in a smoke-house for American soldiers or sailors, an' we can stay here snug as bugs in a rug, barrin' bein a little hungry, till Amos' father is in better condition to travel." "But it will be a long while before that wound is healed!" Jim Freeman exclaimed in dismay. "Yes, I reckon it'll be quite a spell, pervidin' the Britishers stay in the city; but if they go it won't be a hard job to find a boat that'll take us to the Patuxent. But there's little call to make much talk about movin', for we can't leave one of the crowd, no matter what happens to the rest of us." By the time all this had been done it was sunset. The retreat from Bladensburg had been begun about four o'clock in the afternoon, and we were not so badly off to be in Washington and housed so soon after the defeat. The one distressing question was whether the enemy would make search in the city for such as we?