"Who's this yo' have brought home, Jim?" she asked of Noel's host. Her words plainly were disturbing. She was a short, stout woman. Her hair was hanging down her back, and around her shoulders was a shawl which reached almost to her knees. Startled as Noel had been by the sound of her voice, he hastily concluded, as soon as he was aware of the response which the tall man made to her words, that if he was supposedly the head of the house, evidently she controlled the head. "That's just like yo'," she said tartly. "I've got all the mouths I want to feed now, and yo' keep bringing people in here--" "Sh-h-h, Sairy Ann. This yere man is a Union soldier--" "How do yo' know he is?" "He told me so." "Yo' can't believe everybody," said the woman. "Ever since all this trouble with the secesh began, nobody can trust his best friend. If I had my way about it, I would put somebody in command of the Union soldiers that would do something. They wouldn't be runnin' at Bull Run the way they did, and I reckon Pope led the way, too, and probably made better time than any of them. Before McClellan gets his eyes open, I reckon the whole o' Maryland and Harper's Ferry, too, will run to join Lee's army. Pretty kind of men we have fighting for the Union! How do yo' know he is a Union soldier?" she repeated. "If you'll hold the candle you can see for yourself, if there's any of the cloth of my uniform that will show through the mud," said Noel good-naturedly. In spite of her apparent harshness, the young soldier was convinced that she was not so unfriendly as her words at first implied. Taking him at his word, the woman advanced, and holding the candle above her head looked keenly at the intruder. "Yo' don't look so dreadful deceitful," she admitted, "but a body never can tell. Fine feathers sometimes make fine birds, and maybe yo' put on those clothes because yo' want to get into our house. Jim has the name of being a friend of the Union, but he's just about as lively as McClellan. I had to make him go out to see what was the matter with the cattle. They are all right, are they, Jim?" she demanded, turning once more to the man who plainly was her husband. "Yas, Sairy Ann," he replied; "I reckon they got a bit restless endurin' the storm." "Yo' didn't see any signs of men being around?" "This is the only man I saw." "Well, they will be here pretty quick, I reckon," she declared. "If the secesh find out that there is a cow left on the place they will come for it. I reckon they have been here already. Jim isn't much of a protection, except to look at," she added, turning again to her visitor. Under other circumstances Noel would have laughed at her words, for the huge Jim plainly was in full subjection to the little woman who was talking so volubly. "What did yo' stop here for?" she abruptly demanded.