A Thousand-Mile Walk 



halted me at the door and called out his wife, 

 a fine-looking woman, who also questioned me 

 narrowly as to my object in coming so far down 

 through the South, so soon after the war. She 

 said to her husband that she thought they could, 

 perhaps, give me a place to sleep. 



After supper, as we sat by the fire talking 

 on my favorite subject of botany, I described 

 the country I had passed through, its botani 

 cal character, etc. Then, evidently, all doubt 

 as to my being a decent man vanished, and 

 they both said that they would n t for any 

 thing have turned me away; but I must excuse 

 their caution, for perhaps fewer than one in a 

 hundred, who passed through this unfrequented 

 part of the country, were to be relied upon. 

 &quot;Only a short time ago we entertained a man 

 who was well spoken and well dressed, and he 

 vanished some time during the night with some 

 valuable silverware.&quot; 



Mr. Cameron told me that when I arrived 

 he tried me for a Mason, and finding that I was 

 not a Mason he wondered still more that I 

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