Before I had traveled five miles I had been pointed out to the entire
command, and cheers greeted me on every side. As soon as an opportunity
offered I got word with the general and asked if he had any further
special orders for me.
"Just keep around," he said; "I may need you later on."
"But I am a scout," I told him, "and the place for a scout is ahead of
the army, getting information."
"Go ahead," he replied, "and if you see anything that I ought to know
about come back and tell me."
Delighted to be a scout once more, I made my way forward. The general
had given orders that I was to be allowed to pass in and out the lines
at will, so that I was no longer hampered by the activities of my own
friends. I had hardly got beyond the sound of the troops when I saw a
beautiful plantation house, on the porch of which was a handsome old
lady and her two attractive daughters.
They were greatly alarmed when I came up, and asked if I didn't know
that the Yankee army would be along in a few minutes and that my life
was in peril. All their own men folks, they said, were in hiding in the
timber.
"Don't you sit here," begged the old lady, when I had seated myself on
the porch to sip a glass of milk for which I had asked her. "The Yankee
troops will go right through this house. They will break up the piano
and every stick of furniture, and leave the place in ruins.
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