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Page 44
After taking supper with the ferryman, we walked out smoking and
chatting. By degrees I succeeded in taking him down near the ferry,
and there sat down on the bank to try the effect upon his avaricious
heart of the sight of some gold which I had purchased at Montgomery.
His eyes glistened as he examined an eagle with unwonted eagerness,
while we talked of the uncertain value of paper-money, and the
probable future value of Confederate scrip.
As the time drew near when my companion, according to agreement, was
to ride boldly to the river, I stepped down to take a look at his
unused flat. He, of course, walked with me. While standing with my
foot upon the end of his boat, I heard the tramp of the horses, and
said to him, in a quiet tone--"Here is an eagle; you must take me
and my companion over." He remonstrated, and could not risk his life
for that, &c. Another ten dollars was demanded and paid, the horses
were in the flat, and in two minutes we were off for--home.
During that dark and uncertain voyage, I had time not only to coax
into quietness my restive horse, but also to conclude that it would
never do to dismiss our Charon on the other bank, as half an hour
might put on our track a squad of cavalry, who, in our ignorance of
the roads and country, would soon return us to Rebeldom and a rope.
A man who would take twenty dollars for twenty minutes' work, after
swearing that his conscience would not allow him to disobey the
authorities, was not to be trusted out of your sight. Standing near
my companion, I whispered--"This man must pilot us to some point you
will know." I should have stated that this deserting soldier was
within sixty miles of his home, and had some knowledge of the
localities not far north from our present position. With this
purpose, I arranged, when we touched the bank, to be in the rear of
the ferryman, and followed him as he stepped off the boat, to take
breath before a return pull. "Now, my good fellow," said I, "you
have done us one good turn for pay, you must do another for
friendship. We are strangers here, and you must take us to the foot
of Waldon's Ridge, and then we will release you." To this demand he
demurred most vigorously; but my determined position between him and
the boat, gentle words, and an eloquent exhibition of my
six-shooter, the sheen of which the moonlight enabled him to
perceive, soon ended the parley, and onward he moved. We kept him in
the road slightly ahead of us, with our horses on his two flanks,
and chatted as sociably as the circumstances would permit. I am not
careful to justify this constrained service exacted of the ferryman,
further than to say, that I was now visiting upon the head, or
rather the legs, of a real Secessionist, for an hour or two, just
what for many months they had inflicted upon me. For six long miles
we guarded our prisoner-pilot, and, reaching the foot of the
mountain, the summit of which would reveal to my friend localities
which he could recognize, and from which he could tell our bearings
and distances, we called a halt. After apologizing for our rudeness
on the plea of self-preservation, and thanking him for his enforced
service, we bade him good-night, not doubting that he would reach
the river in time to ferry himself over before daylight, and console
his frightened wife by the sight of the golden bribe.
We were now, at eleven o'clock at night, under the shadow of a dark
mountain, and with no knowledge of the course we were to take, other
than the general purpose of pressing northward.
After making some miles of headway and rising several hundred feet,
we struck off at a right angle from the road, worked our way for a
mile among the rocks, and tying our horses, lay down under an
overhanging cliff and tried to sleep. But I wooed Somnus in vain.
My brain and heart were too full. On the verge of a Canaan, for
which I had looked and struggled daring thirteen wearisome months,
would I now reach it in peace, or must other perils be encountered,
and I perhaps thrust back into a dungeon to meet a deserter's fate?
The future was still uncertain, and my mind turned backward,
recalling childhood's joys and a mother's undying love. Oh, how I
longed for one gentle caress from her soft hand to soothe me into
sleep, and how vividly came back to my memory words committed long
ago,--words which, with slight change, tenderly expressed the
longing of my spirit that night. I sank into forgetfulness,
repeating over and over those sweet strains:
"Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight;
Make me a child again, just for to-night!
Mother, come back from the far-distant shore,
Take me again to your heart as of yore;
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep,--
Rock me to sleep, mother--rock me to sleep.
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