A Yankee Girl at Antietam

								

watching them wonderingly.
“Good-bye,” said the good-natured soldier as he swung himself into the
saddle. “You will see more soldiers in gray clothes here before the end
of your visit, or I miss my guess; eh, Richard?” and he turned to his
companion.
“True enough!” responded the man; “the stars and bars will cross this
bridge before many months!”
“What is ‘stars and bars’?” asked Roxy.
“The flag of the Confederate States,” answered the man, and waving their
hands in farewell they rode on. As they started one of the men began to
sing, and the refrain of his song, “Maryland, My Maryland,” came
drifting back to the little girl who stood looking after them.
“I suppose I’d better go home now,” thought Roxy. “I guess my mother
will be surprised when I tell her about the soldiers. I suppose I will
have to tell her about Polly, too,” and sighing deeply Roxy went on her
way toward the narrow path that led to her Grandmother Miller’s. On a
farther slope the vivid green of young wheat ran up to meet the darker
green of forest trees; flowering dogwood and redbud grew along the stone
walls, and the purple blossom of the papaw showed here and there, and
Roxy looked at these blossoms admiringly, and wondered if they would
grow in her garden in Newburyport.
She was only a short distance from the highway when she noticed
something moving behind a thickly growing bush of dogwood. The branches
bent forward, and Roxy stopped and gazed at it, half fearing that some
wild animal was sheltered there that might spring out and seize her. As
she stood ready to run the branches sprang back and a boyish figure
crawled out and slowly rose to his feet.
He was bareheaded, and his brown hair was long and rough. He wore gray
shirt and trousers, and his shoes were so worn that they hardly covered
his feet. Roxy was too surprised to move, but as the young man gazed
toward her with a half-frightened, pleading look, she lost all sense of
fear.
“Oh, what is the matter?” she asked. “What is it?”
“I’m starving!” came the whispered answer, and the young man sank down
close to the bushes. “I can’t go another step! Were those soldiers after
me?”
“No! No! I don’t believe so. Come up to my grandma’s and you can have
all you want to eat,” Roxy said eagerly.
The young man shook his head. “I must not let anyone see me. You won’t
tell anyone about me. Promise!” he pleaded. “Promise not to tell a human
being that you have seen me; and can’t you get me something to eat? I
have a safe hiding-place near here.”
Roxy gave her promise promptly, and the young man urged her to bring him
food as soon as possible, cautioning her not to let anyone know that she
had taken it, and telling her to leave whatever she brought under the
thicket of tangled vines and bushes behind which he had hidden.
“Remember not to let any human being suspect that you have seen a