“Carliny told me with her own lips that after she and her boy had come all the way from Yancey County—mighty nigh every step afoot too—her father wouldn’t let her in. She wouldn’t have come—for she’s got along tollable since she’s been a widow—only but she heard that he and Grover Cleveland wasn’t doin’ any good a housekeepin’ by theirselves; and it hurt her powerful to think that her sister Missouri’s little boy wasn’t gettin’ the right kind of care. “Everybody’s clean done out about it. The preacher, he set out to labour with him, but Colonel Ledbetter he give him to understand that he was oversteppin’ his authority and since then nary neighbour darst speak up. But I’d give a pretty to tell Colonel Ledbetter what _I_ think of him, and I aim to do it this very night.” “Don’t you, Suly; ole man Ledbetter ain’t pleasant to talk to when he’s riled.” There came the sound of some one tearing through the woods, and Thad brought Beauregard to a sudden stand. “Here we are,” he shouted. “You-all got him!” called a quavering voice out of the darkness. “Got him sure-’nough, Colonel Ledbetter. Captured him way off down by the ford!” “I been trampin’ the woods for a hour lookin’ for him and I’m hoarse as a crow callin’ for him. Is he dressed up much?” “Not much. Some durn fools would have took him for a ha’nt but I don’t never run from nothin’ and Suly here, she’s some spunky too.” They drove slowly to the house the old man keeping abreast. The door stood open and from within shone the light of a flickering hearth fire. Grover Cleveland shed his blanket, sprang over the wheel while it was yet in motion, and fled into the house and out of sight. The old man chuckled. “The little feller’s right much ashamed of hisself when he’s found out in one of his spells. I reckon he cried some when you-all woke him up—he gen’ally does. “Them that’s had nothin’ to cry for’s the ones that’s done the cryin’,” teased Thad. “I don’t care if I did,” said Suly preparing to accept the invitation to “stop in by a spell.” “It must be a mighty nasty feelin’ to wake up in the woods at night and not know how you got there.” “So it is, so it is,” said Colonel Ledbetter leading the way into the house. “I ain’t no mind to be stern with him, for he comes true and honest by the trick. I done it myself when I was a boy.” He replenished the fire and lit a candle. “He sleeps right there betwixt me and the wall,” he pointed to a bed in the corner, “and I can’t contrive how he manages to give me the slip so often; he’s got some sort of sleepin’ slyness that he ain’t no more notion of when he’s awake, than a angel. Barricadin’ the door ain’t no good. One night I tied him fast to my wrist so’s he couldn’t move without wakin’ me up, but that seemed to hurt the little fellow’s feelin’s powerful an’ I didn’t try it again.” Nothing was to be seen of Grover Cleveland. Suly went to the bed.