"'Aw, Jim,' I says, 'don't be a fool. The woods may be full of rebels.
I'm full as hungry as you are, but I ain't going to stop for any
persimmons.'

"'Just a handful,' he says, 'and it won't take a minute. Will you wait?'

"'No, I won't,' I says, being so doggoned tired that I knew if I sat
down I'd fall asleep. 'I'm for pushing back to camp, and if you ain't
all kinds of a foolish boy, you'll do the same.'

"So I went on, and Jim, he gives me one look, and then he gives the tree
a squint, and sho! he was off and up it before you could say 'Jack
Robinson.' Climb! well, rather. He was up it in no time, and eating and
slinging the persimmons into his hat. It made me so mad that I just
naturally turned my back and went right on.

"Suddenly I hears a kind of whistle that was our signal--Jim's and
mine--to look out for trouble. So I drops right down and rolls over into
the bushes, and draws them over me, so I can't be seen. Then I lays
quiet and listens.

"I hears voices, and turning my head so softly that the bushes don't
move, I peeps out and sees a party of rebs a-coming down the path.
They'd seen Jim, just after he'd give me his warning, and they lays for
him under the tree, and one of them rebs, who was just as handy at the
climbing as Jim, goes up and brings him down, persimmons and all. The
rebs laugh, and eat his persimmons and take him prisoner and march off;
Jim allowing that he was so hungry that he'd stolen off by his lonesome
to get something to eat. One of the men had heard the whistle Jim gave,
but Jim explaining that he whistled in surprise at seeing them, they