A Yankee Girl at Shiloh

								

of her morning’s adventure at the brook; and her mother instantly
declared that Berry could no longer run about alone. “The man was
probably a Confederate spy,” she said anxiously, “and if he had
discovered that a family from New England were living near by, that,
instead of being a little boy of Tennessee, you were a little Yankee
girl, we cannot tell what would have happened.”
“Yes, I believe the man has been traveling along the Cumberland and
Tennessee Rivers looking over the Confederate line of defense, and
his saying he might return this way in the spring may mean that the
Confederates fear an attack will be made upon Fort Henry or Fort
Donelson. If the Union army could capture these forts and open the
Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, the Confederate line of defense
would be destroyed,” said Mr. Arnold thoughtfully; and Mrs. Arnold
instantly added, “We surely need not fear any battle taking place near
this remote spot, but with spies everywhere we must take all possible
precautions. I hope you did not tell the Braggs of meeting a stranger,
Berry?” she added.
“No; I didn’t tell Mrs. Bragg. I don’t know why I didn’t,” Berry
responded thoughtfully. “I guess I was really frightened after all,
and didn’t want Mrs. Bragg to know it.”
“Nonsense, Berry!” said Mr. Arnold sharply. “You could run away
from anyone. And if you blew your whistle, even if you were too far
away for me to hear and come to your assistance, it would make any
dangerous person sure that help was close at hand, and would probably
frighten him away.”
Berry’s father did not like the idea of the little girl going about in
fear. He knew it would destroy all her pleasure in the free woodland
life which they had all taken so much happiness in. The whistle of
which he spoke had been a gift to Berry from her brother Francis.
It was a silver whistle, attached to a long silver chain that Berry
always wore about her neck, with the whistle tucked into the pocket
of her blouse. During the first year in the cabin Mr. Arnold had
not been sufficiently strong to walk far, and it was Francis who
had chopped the wood for the cabin fires, journeyed to Corinth for
necessary provisions, and fished for bass and pickerel along the
river; and Berry had often been his companion. He had given her the
whistle so if she lost sight of him in the woodland trails she could
instantly call him; and Berry valued it more than anything else and
never left the cabin without it.
Nothing more was said that day in regard to the stranger, but in the
afternoon Mr. Arnold started off into the forest, telling Berry that
he thought she would better stay and keep her mother company. He
followed the trail to the Braggs’ cabin, and made his way for some
distance up the stream where Berry had encountered the stranger; but
he found nothing to cause alarm, and was tempted to believe that,
after all, the man might have been only a woodsman journeying across