‘You’re a genius, Grizzly, as I’ve said before,’ remarked Lucius. ‘But I wish you hadn’t cut your finger like that.’ ‘Pooh! ’tain’t nuthin’,’ answered Ephraim, vigorously sucking the wounded member. ‘I tell ye what it is, Luce, ef we don’t git suthin’ ter eat pretty soon, I’ll hev ter begin on my boots. I’m thet low, ye can’t imagine.’ ‘Can’t I?’ replied Lucius. ‘Ever since I got that whiff of coffee in my nostrils, I’ve been sighing for some. Seriously, though, we must get food somewhere. We can’t go on walking all day upon nothing.’ ‘The cunnel ’lowed he war goin’ ter teach us ter dance upon nuthin’,’ said Ephraim, chuckling at the reminiscence. ‘The very fust Yank I come across, I’m goin’ up ter him to arsk him fer a bite er suthin’.’ ‘And suppose he hasn’t got anything?’ ‘Oh! drap yer supposin’, Luce. I tell ye it’s a sartinty. But ’sposin’ he han’t, since ye will be always ’sposin’, then I’ll eat him ez he stands, and make no bones about it.’ ‘Supposing it’s the colonel,’ laughed Lucius. ‘Aw, yah! No, I wouldn’t tech his pesky carcass with a forty-foot pole with an iron spike on the end er it.’ ‘I’d give something to know whereabouts we are,’ said Lucius. ‘How do we know we are in the valley at all?’ ‘Pho!’ answered Ephraim, ‘I ’low I never thought er it in thet light. Er co’se we mought hev been blown across the Blue Ridge during the night; but I reckon not. I should say we’re in the valley right enuff, somewhar ’twixt Staunton and Winchester.’ ‘That’s a wide range.’ ‘Waal, I know thet; but it’s the best I kin do fer ye till we git outer this wood and strike up agin some spot that’ll serve us as a landmark.—Hello! Hyar we come ter the edge er the wood agen. Hist! now. Let’s go cautious.’ Had they but known it, they were not a quarter of a mile from the spot where they had observed the Federal cannon planted, for they had simply been wandering round and round among the trees, and before long would probably have found themselves back again in view of the Federal camp. They had simply changed their direction slightly without ever getting very far from the open country, and now they halted to hold a short council of war. ‘I tell ye what it is,’ began Ephraim. ‘Thar’s no sense in our moochin’ round through the woods like this, never beginnin’ anywhar, and always endin’ up nowhar. We’ll go now and take a squint inter the open, and ef the kentry seems cl’ar, we’ll march along the edge of the woods instead of through ’em. That’ll be a lump better, and et the fust sign er danger we kin slip back among the trees.’ ‘That sounds a good idea,’ agreed Lucius. ‘Well, come and let us survey the ground right hyar.’ They advanced together, cautiously still, but more boldly than before, for their disguises gave them confidence, and they were not now so concerned at the prospect of meeting a stray Federal or two, provided they could keep clear of the pickets.