THE GREAT MASSACRE 93 



**I'm sorry to hear it," he said, ''sorry to hear 

 it, but yo're a Southerner an' the grandson of a 

 Confederate soldier. Come in!" 



The official looked round the cabin with curi- 

 osity as they entered. 



"You seem comfortable enough in here," he 

 remarked. 



The pot-hunter looked at his guest with a chal- 

 lenging directness. 



"Savin' for Shan, my nephew," he said, "yo're 

 the only man beside myself to put foot in this 

 cabin for twenty year." 



"By which you mean that you want to know why 

 I'm here. I'll tell you just why. You said your 

 father fought at Shiloh?" 



"Yes," said Bull. 



"And he fought there, I reckon, for the same 

 reason that my grandfather fought, because they 

 both thought the North hadn't any business inter- 

 fering in the rights of slave-holding states. 

 Wasn't that about it?" 



"Just about," the woodsman agreed, wondering 

 where this preamble might lead. 



"Of course we'd both have been Confederates 

 if we 'd lived at that time, you and I, ' ' the official 

 continued, "but, looking at it now, don't you think 



