“Those soldiers passed me. They are after a Yankee soldier whom they had held as a prisoner,” said Polly. “Poor chap! I hope they don’t find him.”
“They mustn’t! They mustn’t!” Roxy declared so seriously that Polly wondered to herself why the little girl should look so unhappy over the possible capture of a man she had never seen.
“I reckon it’s because they are both Yankees,” thought the good-natured girl, who was well pleased to be on friendly terms again with her small neighbor.
“Well, they said they were coming back. They might run into Northern troops if they went beyond Sharpsburg. Here they come now,” and Polly drew the brown horse well out of the road as the two mounted soldiers, riding at a good pace, clattered over the bridge and stopped their horses close beside Polly’s wagon.
The men touched their hats smilingly, and the man who had told Roxy that her father would be proud to be called a Yankee, said:
“The Yank has fooled us and got well away, unless he’s hiding somewhere near at hand. You haven’t seen any half-starved runaway soldier about here, have you?” and he turned his sharp glance on the two girls.
“Oh, no!” Polly answered. “We wouldn’t let any soldier starve in Maryland. But I haven’t seen anyone since I met you on the road.”
The man nodded and smiled, and was about to ride on when his companion said gruffly:
“What about that other girl? She’s a Yankee. Maybe she’s hiding the fellow, or else her folks may be.”
Roxy’s frightened glance convinced both the men that it might be possible the speaker was right, and when she turned and fled up the slope toward home they were sure of it, and in an instant both the men were off their horses and after her.
“If she reaches the house and warns him he’ll get away from us again,” panted the short man as he found himself obliged to climb the wall.
As Roxy neared home she began to call: “Mother! Mother!” at the top of her voice, so that when she dashed into the yard with the two men close behind her not only Mrs. Delfield but Grandma Miller, Dulcie and two negroes from a near-by field were all hurrying to meet her.
With her mother’s arms about her, and Grandma Miller facing her pursuers, Roxy began to feel less frightened. She heard the strangers tell their errand, and explain that Roxy had told them she was a Yankee girl.