'A right smart six mile; it's at the Cross-roads. Ye know the Cunnel, du ye?' 'Oh, yes, I know him well. If his house is not more than six miles off, I think we had better go on to-night. What do you say, Scip?' 'I reckon we'd better gwo, massa,' replied the darky, who had spread my traveling-shawl in the chimney-corner, and was seated on it, drying his clothes. 'Ye'd better not,' said the woman; 'ye better stay har; thar's a right smart run twixt har and the Cunnel's, and tain't safe to cross arter dark.' 'If that is so we'd better stay, Scip; don't you think so?' I said to the darky. 'Jess as you like, massa. We got tru wid de oder one, and I reckon tain't no woss nor dat.' 'The bridge ar carried away, and ye'll have to swim _shore_,' said the woman. 'Ye'd better stay.' 'Thank you, madam, I think we will,' I replied, after a moment's thought; 'our horse has swum one of your creeks to-night, and I dare not try another.' I had taken off my coat, and had been standing, during the greater part of this conversation, in my shirt-sleeves before the fire, turning round occasionally to facilitate the drying process, and taking every now and then a sip from the gourd containing our brandy and water; aided in the latter exercise by the old woman and the eldest girl, who indulged quite as freely as I did. 'Mighty good brandy that,' at last said the woman. 'Ye like brandy, don't ye?' 'Not very much, madam. I take it to-night because I've been exposed to the storm, and it stimulates the circulation. But Scip, here, don't like spirits. He'll get the rheumatism because he don't.' 'Don't like dem sort of sperits, massa; but rumatics neber trubble me.' 'But I've got it mighty bad,' said the woman, '_and I take 'em whenever I kin get 'em_.' I rather thought she did, but I 'reckoned' her principal beverage was whisky. 'You have the rheumatism, madam, because your house is so open; a draught of air is always unhealthy.' 'I allers reckoned 'twar _healthy_,' she replied. 'Ye Yankee folks have quar notions.' I looked at my watch, and found it was nearly ten o'clock, and, feeling very tired, said to the hostess,-- 'Where do you mean we shall sleep?' 'Ye can take that ar bed,' pointing to the one nearest the wall, 'the darky can sleep har;' motioning to the settle on which she was seated. 'But where will you and your daughters sleep? I don't wish to turn you out of your beds.' 'Oh! don't ye keer for us; we kin all bunk together; dun it afore. Like to turn in now?'