the necessity of the work, and told them that if
provisions were not on hand by a given time, he would consent to their
ceasing from work. The men then went to work cheerfully.

Jack M'Bride and myself had previously solved, in a measure, the
difficult problem of reconciling the conflicting claims of an empty
stomach and the vigorous prosecution of the war. As night came on, we
retired some distance into the woods, built a fire, and made ourselves
comfortable. The next morning we found a piece of pork, which had been
lost or thrown away three or four days before. It was good. We scraped
the mud from it carefully, and ate it with a relish. We then came back
and went to work with the rest.

After these works had been completed, we moved some distance down
Hatcher's Run, to a small branch of that stream, called Arthur's Creek.
Our position was on the left flank of the army, facing rather toward the
rear. For the third time this winter we built winter-quarters. Our camp
was pleasantly located, fronting a large farm, in the rear woods.
Brigade and division headquarters were in the woods, our picket-line in
the open ground beyond the farm-house, a mile from camp.

On the 7th of February, the next day after the fight near Dabney's Mill,
I got a Spencer rifle, and kept it until we were mustered out. The
spiral spring of the magazine was damaged in some way, so that it would
receive only four or five cartridges, instead of seven. I repaired it by
taking the spring out entirely. It would then receive nine or ten, and
a little practice made the experiment a success.

Duty was light, and our main business was amusing ourselves. For in-door
amusement, euchre was the favorite. There was not much gambling, but
many fine points were settled by "best three out of five." One form of
out-door amusement was the following: A peg was driven into the ground,
and to this were fastened two ropes, fifteen or twenty feet long. Two
men were then blindfolded, and placed one at the end of each rope, on
opposite sides of the peg. To one was given a notched stick, about two
feet long; and also another, to rub over it, making a scraping sound. He
was called the "scraper." To the other was given a pant-leg, or
something of this kind, stuffed with paper or rags. He was called the
"pounder," and it was his business to "pound" the scraper, if he could.
They were each required to keep hold of his rope. The boys would
sometimes stand around a circle of th