"Because of more than one circumstance. Before communications with our Southern friends became so infrequent I kept up with Charleston. I know that the First South Carolina regiment was on Sullivan's Island early in 1861, some months before the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and I remember reading in the _Mercury_ that the ladies of Charleston had presented the First with a very heavy blue silk banner--a State flag with the silver palmetto and crescent." "Then it may be the First regiment, Doctor; I saw the palmetto and the crescent." "More than that," he continued; "the First South Carolina is one of the regiments which were lately under Anderson near Fredericksburg, and we know that Anderson's force has fallen back on Richmond. It must have passed through Ashland very recently." "I wonder if there are any men in that regiment whom we used to know," said I, musingly. "Very likely; there are companies in it from Charleston." "Wouldn't it have been strange if I had gone with them, and somebody had recognized me?" "Stranger things than that might happen to you; somebody might have recognized you--some old schoolmate, for example--and yet might have sworn that you are a Carolinian. Was it known to everybody at school that you were from the North?" "I think it was, at first; but not in my last years there; of course, some of the boys knew it." "Besides," said the Doctor, "there is more than one Northern man in the Confederate army--men who moved South before the war." "Yes, I suppose so; but I cannot understand them." "They have acquired homes, and think they must defend their homes; that is all, at least so far as concerns those of them who reason, and the others don't count." "They might at least be neutral," I said. "How could they think that being neutral would defend their homes?" "And you think that the Southern people really believe their homes in danger?" "No doubt of it--and they are right. Have you not already seen more than one Southern home destroyed?" "Yes, here where the war is; but the average home in the South, far away from the armies." "There will have been very few homes in the South far away from armies; to conquer the South you must overrun her territory." "Doctor, you are gloomy to-night, and I confess that I am also. I wonder what's the matter with us." "I don't admit being unusually gloomy," said the Doctor; "true, I have been seeing pain and wretchedness recently, and so have you. Our trades, however, ought to have accustomed us to such by this time, if ever." "I don't think I should ever become accustomed to blood; I don't wish to," said I. "You need never fight another battle," said he. "How can I avoid battle?" I asked. "Your services as a scout are worth more than forty cents a day; you ought not to fight at all." "You think fighting more dangerous than scouting?" "Fighting and scouting are more dangerous than scouting."