to carry him to the store; and that minute the two boys started on the run.  They got half way to the tree I was in before the men noticed. Then the men see them, and jumped on their horses and took out after them.  They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no good, the boys had too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again. One of the boys was Buck, and the other was a slim young chap about nineteen years old. The men ripped around awhile, and then rode away.  As soon as they was out of sight I sung out to Buck and told him.  He didn't know what to make of my voice coming out of the tree at first.  He was awful surprised.  He told me to watch out sharp and let him know when the men come in sight again; said they was up to some devilment or other--wouldn't be gone long.  I wished I was out of that tree, but I dasn't come down.  Buck begun to cry and rip, and 'lowed that him and his cousin Joe (that was the other young chap) would make up for this day yet.  He said his father and his two brothers was killed, and two or three of the enemy.  Said the Shepherdsons laid for them in ambush.  Buck said his father and brothers ought to waited for their relations--the Shepherdsons was too strong for them.  I asked him what was become of young Harney and Miss Sophia.  He said they'd got across the river and was safe.  I was glad of that; but the way Buck did take on because he didn't manage to kill Harney that day he shot at him--I hain't ever heard anything like it. All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! goes three or four guns--the men had slipped around through the woods and come in from behind without their horses!  The boys jumped for the river--both of them hurt--and as they swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and singing out, “Kill them, kill them!”  It made me so sick I most fell out of the tree.  I ain't a-going to tell _all_ that happened--it