“I done toted ’er ovah to Elder Jackson’s but I can’t let ’er stay dar. I’ll jes lock up de house, an’ git de baby, an’ clar out ovah de rivah, fo’ de scar o’ stayin’ in dis yere house’ll perish me out, if I’m de onus one fo’ a quarter hour mo’.” “Now, Debby, yo’ get the baby, and take ’er over to Rives’s, and stay thar, he’s been so conciliating to ’em, and they think a heap o’ him. Blamed but I wish the baby was here a minute till I kiss ’er ’fo’ I go up to see General Baker. Don’t get scared now. They won’t hurt the women, I reckon. It’s only them as votes an’ can manage a gun they’re after. Take care yo’rself,” and he kissed her. “Oh, ain’t yo’ scarred to go, Doc?” sobbed she, clinging to him. “I spex yo’re forced to by persuasion; but I’m feared they’ll put a bullet into yo’, and maybe fifty.” Here she broke down entirely, and wept aloud, sobbing, “Oh, don’t go, Doc! don’t go!” “But I’ve got a right to, to save the town. He’ll lay it in ashes. I wouldn’t like to tell yo, all the way they’re talking, and making big threats, and abusing us to everything yo’ can think.” “To my knowance they’re mighty bad; and I’m mighty glad Mann Harris sent his wife off.” “Well, Debby, yo’ go and get the baby, and take good care of her. I reckon you’d best tote her ovah to your mother’s ’cross the river. Some on ’em might hurt her if they knowed she was mine.” They left the house together, and Doc locked the door, and put the key in his pocket. “Oh, my lawses!” exclaimed Mrs. Doc. “Don’t yo’ go up thar, Doc! Jes see such heaps o’ men! Jes lots and piles of ’em! _Now yo’ sha’n’t go!_” “No mo’ I won’t! They picks out all the hardest places for a man to go to; but his soldiers ’d follow the General anywhere. There he is now. _He_ ain’t gwoine to meet _me_. See! He knows I’m here well enough, but he won’t look at me. Ah! He’s gwoine over to the city. P’raps he’ll just clar out, now he’s got the rest agoing. There’s Kanrasp, and Rives too.” General Rives and his two neighbors met General Baker at the next corner. The latter was on horseback and rode up to General Rives and demanded the name of the Colonel of the Eighteenth Regiment. “Colonel Williams,” was the reply. “Where is he?” “At his house, I reckon.” “I want him. I want those guns, and by——I’ve got to have them.” “General Baker, I don’t know what to do about them. I’ll go up and see the Captain, and consult with him, and see if he says to give them up.” A moment later and he met Judge Kanrasp, who was earnestly urging the colored men, women, and children who were huddled in knots upon the street, to go home and remain quietly in their houses. “Kanrasp,” said Judge Rives, “It is no use for you to stay here and get killed; and you will be killed if you stay,—a ‘carpet-bagger and a radical,’ like you.”