Page 146 - Among the camps, or, Young people's stories of the war

Jake suggested their going; back to look and see if he had
gone to the "little pasture/' as they called the place; but
Jack was bent on getting the axe. and the corn with which
they proposed to bait him. His reference to Aunt Winnie's
axe prevailed, and they kept on.

They had some difficulty in finding the place where Jake
had dropped the things, for though they found the clearing,
they had to be very careful how they moved around through
the woods. They could sec the picket lounging about, and
could hear them talking distinctly. They were discussing

whether the men they had shot at were just scouts or were
pickets thrown out, and whether they had hiL any of them.
One said that they were cavalry, for lie had seen the horses;
another said he knew they were infantry, for he had seen the
men. Jack lay down, and crept along close up.

Jack's plan was to set a trap for the horse just at the head
of the ravine, where the hanks became very steep and high.
He had read how Indians drove buffalo by frightening them
till they all rushed to one point. He had seen also in a book
of Livingston’s travels a plan of capturing animals in Africa.

This plan he chose. He proposed to lay his bait along up to
the gully, and to make a sort of alleyway up which the horse
could go, At the end lie would have an opening nearly but
not quite closed by saplings inclined toward each other, and
which would he movable, so that they might interlace. On

either side of this he would have a high barricade. He
believed that the horse would be led by the corn which he