I had a guilty conscience, I assure you. The hog was cooked, but I did not eat a piece of it. I felt that I had rather starve, and I believe that it would have choked me to death if I had attempted it.
A short time afterward an old citizen from Maury county visited me. My father sent me, by him, a silver watch—which I am wearing to-day—and eight hundred dollars in old issue Confederate money. I took two hundred dollars of the money, and had it funded for new issue, 33⅓ cents discount. The other six hundred I sent to Vance Thompson, then on duty at Montgomery, with instructions to send it to my brother, Dave Watkins, uncle Asa Freeman, and J. R. Dixon, all of whom were in Wheeler's Cavalry, at some other point—I knew not where. After getting my money, I found that I had $133.33⅓. I could not rest. I took one hundred dollars, new issue, and going by my lone self back to the old lady’s house, I said, "Madam, some soldiers were here a short time ago, and took your hog. I was one of that party, and I wish to pay you for it. What was it worth?" "Well, sir," says she, "money is of no value to me; I cannot get any article that I wish; I would much rather have the hog." Says I, "Madam, that is an impossibility; your hog is dead and eat up, and I have come to pay you for it." The old lady's eyes filled with tears. She said that she was perfectly willing to give the soldiers everything she had, and if she thought it had done us any good, she would not charge anything for it.
"Well," says I, "Madam, here is a hundred dollar, new issue, Confederate bill. Will this pay you for your hog?" "Well, sir," she says, drawing herself up to her full height, her cheeks flushed and her eyes flashing, "I do not want your money, I would feel that it was blood money." I saw that there was no further use to offer it to her. I sat down by the fire and the conversation turned upon other subjects.
I helped the old lady catch a chicken (an old hen—about the last she had), for dinner, went with her in the garden and pulled a bunch of eschalots, brought two buckets of water, and cut and brought enough wood to last several days.
After awhile, she invited me to dinner, and after dinner I sat down by her side, took her old hand in mine, and told her the
