It had ever been Uncle 'Rasmus's way to treat me as if I was a child, and heretofore it had given me great annoyance that he should stroke my cheeks lovingly, and croon about his "bressed baby," or "brabe little man"; but now that I was in the enemy's country where I might come to grief at any moment, these evidences of affection were welcome, nay, I craved them so ardently as to remain really nestling in his arms until the old man tired of treating as a baby the lad who counted to call himself a Minute Boy of York Town. Then it was I asked concerning my comrades, and Uncle 'Rasmus replied that Pierre was in the loft above, doing his share of guard duty, and Saul had gone away shortly after breakfast, bent on seeking out his mare that he might feast his eyes upon her even as I had upon my own Silver Heels. Just for an instant there came into my mind the fear that my cousin was forgetting himself by leaving little Frenchie so long on duty; but it was only a passing thought, and I gave no further heed to his absence as I went up the ladder into the bare room festooned with cobwebs and lighted by a single square aperture at either end, through which the breeze came without check. Horry Sims, miserable Tory that he was, appeared to be having much the best of this imprisonment. Knowing that he could not escape save by making his way down through the scuttle, and desiring to spare him all the pain that might be prudent, our lads had left him unfettered and ungagged. He was sitting on the blanket which he had rolled up to form a cushion, with his back against the side of the house near the chimney, and appeared to be taking solid comfort, although one might see by the expression on his face that the close confinement and the fear as to what might finally happen, was telling upon him. On the contrary, Pierre was the one of that couple who appeared to be getting the worst of the business. He was sitting on the bare puncheons near by the scuttle, with his knees in his arms, looking as weary as a lad well could look, and I pitied the little fellow, remembering what delights had been mine during what had been much the same as a vacation, when I journeyed to the American lines and from there to the plantation. "Finding it hard work, are you?" I asked, crouching on the floor beside him, and the dear little fellow, with that bright smile of his, shrugging his shoulders as if it was a matter of indifference, said cheerily: "It is not as lively here as I have known it in New Orleans, and there is but little with which to occupy one's attention; but when Saul has come back I count on going down to the river bank and having a swim, if so be his majesty's red-coated servants do not forbid such sport." "There is no reason why you should not go now, lad. Surely I can well afford to take your place after having wandered around the country to my heart's content."