hall to the front porch where they rested and awaited the good dinner
already in progress for them.

Mrs. Boone was sick in bed, and one or two of the soldiers seeing some
one in bed, and more to find out who was there than anything else,
sauntered into the room and up to the bed. As soon as he saw he had made
a mistake, he quickly apologized and retreated to the front porch,
where, to cover his embarrassment, he asked how far it was to Haynes'.
Boone told him it was seven miles.

Fearing the soldiers would become restless by their prolonged wait for
dinner, Colonel Boone went into the house and told his two daughters,
Maggie and Mollie, to help the old negro lady get dinner, and to stay in
the dining room during the dinner hour and wait on the soldiers, and be
as pleasant as possible with them. He told the girls that he was afraid
the soldiers were messengers of mischief, sent there at the suggestion
of Mr. Haynes, but that he had not decided just what they intended to
do. It was the idea of Colonel Boone to make the whiskey draw the object
of this visit to him, from his guests, and some of the more talkative
ones had already begun to divulge their business. The Colonel decided to
leave them alone so they could consult with themselves, so busied
himself about the house making his visitors comfortable wherever he
could. He stopped in the living room and listened to the conversation
going on between the soldiers out on the porch, which conversation
sometimes developed into an argument about Mr. Haynes and the
Lieutenant, the full import of which he could not glean. Then he
returned to the porch, in a round-about way, brought up the subject of
distance, from his place to Haynes. He then said: "Mr. Haynes had an
ill-feeling toward me, and I have been told that he is circulating a
report that I am a rebel, and that he intends to do me bodily harm." One