10 IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 



I admitted meekly that they were. 



" You are English, ain't you ? " he went on. 

 " You are English, Yankee born, ain't 

 you?" 



I owned it. 



" Well, I 'm Spanish. That ain't Minor- 

 can. My grandfather was a , and com- 

 manded St. Augustine. He couldn't have 

 done that if he had been Minorcan." 



By this time he was quieting down a bit. 

 His father remembered the Indian war. 

 The son had heard him tell about it. 



"Those were dangerous times," he re- 

 marked. "You couldn't have been stand- 

 ing out here in the woods then." 



" There is no danger here now, is there ? " 

 said I. 



"No, no, not now." But as he drove 

 along he turned to say that he was n't afraid 

 of any thing ; he was n't that kind of a man. 

 Then, with a final turn, he added, what I 

 could not dispute, " A man's life is always 

 in danger." 



After he was gone, I regretted that I had 

 offered no apology for my unintentionally 

 offensive question ; but I was so taken by 

 surprise, and so much interested in the man 



