It was just after the war, and the city was full of homeless men, who roamed its streets, unable to find work, and actually living on charity. Some of them had no home to go to, and others could not raise the means to take them there. “Pears like we wus whipped bad,” he said, between the mouthfuls. She nodded an affirmative. “I 'lowed General Forrest would help me to get back to Georgy. There's whar I belong.” “Did you ask him?” The General was a resident of Memphis at that time. “I went to see him about it, and he couldn't do nothing--said he had no money,” which was a fact, no doubt. “I {267}tell you, them cussed Yanks fit well. They had good pluck, after all.” “I think they proved that,” she said faintly, her terror returning, for she saw he thought her a Southerner as well as himself, and she had misty visions of being strangled, the silly girl. “Oh,” she thought, “will Frank never come?” The man ate as if he had not seen food for many a day, and all the time his discourse was about the Yanks and what he'd like to do to' them. At last his hunger seemed satisfied, and rising, with his ragged, faded soldier cap in hand, he began to thank her profusely for her kindness. Something in her face arrested his attention, for he suddenly paused, and coming a step nearer to her, he said: “I didn't like to beg, but I was nigh dead. If those Northern cusses hadn't beaten us into poverty, I'd have been home with my old mother now. I don't 'low they'd ever give a crust to a dog to keep life in his body!” Her face flushed, and a sudden courage came to her. She answered, defiantly-- “Indeed, you do not do us justice. You do not know us.” “Know you? Ain't you one of our people, ma'am?” “I am one of those people you despise--a Yankee,” she answered, looking him steadily in the face. “A Yankee? And you have fed _me_. Fed a man who has been abusing you right along, and you must hate him?” “I do not hate you. Oh, no, I could not hate a single human being. You are one of God's children, and so am I.” The scowl of doubt and distrust fled from the man's troubled face. He towered above her, tall, gaunt, but powerfully built. “But it seems strange you'd be so willing to help me out, when you knew that I was agin your kind. Why did you do it?”