Page:Historical and biographical sketches.djvu/387

Rh hiding place we went to a house and asked the woman whether she could get us some dinner. She said she had not much in the house, but if we chose would get ready for us all she could. So one of us was stationed at the front, another at the back door to give the alarm upon the approach of the provosts, while she cooked dinner, which consisted of fried flitch, cabbage, potatoes, molasses, bread and butter, and rye coffee. During its preparation she entertained us with accounts of the rebels, telling how “sassy” they were, how they scared a young man into fits from the effects of which he died, how she cursed them to their faces, something that judging from her appearance and manners she was very able to do, and how she threatened to cut their throats with the huge butcher knife with which she was then slicing the bread. Shortly after a young fellow, one of Milroy's men, who was staying there, and her daughter came in with a bucket full of blackberries and she gave us each a saucer full. We paid her twenty-five cents a piece and then went further in town to the main street, where we bought some little articles. On coming back we chanced to see a woman taking some pies out of an oven and thinking they would suit us exactly, we hurried into the yard eager to make a purchase. At first she positively refused to part with any, saying she wanted them for her family, but after some cajolery she finally consented to let us have two or three. We carried them into camp by the same route we had come. There they told us Governor Curtin was on the ground addressing the men, and soon afterward he came over to our regiment, and though he was very hoarse made a short speech. He said among other things that there was every prospect of the “emergency” being over and our being sent home in a few days; but being of one Commonwealth, no Pennsylvanian had a