26 NORTH CAROLINA 



for once conducting himself with something 

 like Christian propriety. For to-day, at all 

 events, he was neither a deserter nor an 

 exile. 



We rested for an hour or more at the 

 half-way house, and then resumed our jour- 

 ney : the morning story over again, up- 

 ward and downward and roundabout, with 

 woods and hills everywhere, and two moun- 

 tains still to put behind us. We should be 

 in Highlands before dark, the driver said ; 

 but one contingency had been left out of his 

 calculation. When we had been under way 

 an hour, or some such matter, he began to 

 worry about one of the horses. My own 

 eyes had been occupied elsewhere, but now 

 it was plain enough, my attention having 

 been called to it, that " Doc " was leaving 

 his mate to do the work. And Doc was 

 never known to play the shirk, the driver 

 said, with a jealousy for his favorite's repu- 

 tation pleasant to see and honorable to both 

 parties. The poor fellow must be sick. 

 " Did n't he eat his dinner ? " I asked. 

 " Yes ; there was no sign of anything wrong 

 at that time." Then it could be no very 

 killing matter, I said to myself ; a touch of 



