Belmont Chronicle

A Rhode Island soldier, while on picket guard, was rushed upon by a party of Confederate cavalry. He fired at the foremost of them and ran. Before him was an open field about fifty rods across, bounded by an old log fence, and beyond that a thicket of briers and underbrush. For this bushy retreat the soldier started. A half dozen horsemen after him. Fortunately for the fugitive the rains had softened the soil, and the horses slumped through the turf so badly that pursuit was slow. A pistol ball passed through the runner's hat, but he reached the fence, and with one bound landed on the top, intending to give a long spring ahead, but the old fence crumbled beneath his weight and down he went. But luck favored him again, for a hog had rooted out a gutter at this place and at the moment was lying in it. The soldier fell plump into the hole, and the frightened hog uttered one squeal and scampered into the underbrush, leaving the newcomer in possession of the wallow and buried under the debris of the fence. A minute more and up dashed the horsemen. Hearing the rustle of the fleeing hog in the bushes, they supposed it to be the picket, and dashed through the gap in the fence and hastened on. When they were well out of sight the fugitive crawled out from the mud hole and ran back to camp. The following day one of the same horsemen was taken prisoner. Our hero recognized him at once. "I say," he asked "did you catch that hog yesterday?" "We did that," retorted the prisoner "but it wasn't the one we were after!" Youth's Companion.