coming up meanwhile, he was invited by the captain to
partake of some of the beef, and he gladly accepted, as he said he was
very hungry; so another plate, knife, and fork were wanted. I borrowed
my comrade the corporal's canteen and knife, and manufactured another
fork like the former to serve for the colonel, and they both said the
beef was very good, but not very well done, which it certainly was
not, for though it went down sweet like most things in those times,
the inside was certainly hardly warm.

The colonel sent me to the quartermaster for a canteen of rum, which
was equivalent to three pints, for which purpose another canteen had
to be borrowed, but when I returned to him with it he said, "That's
right; now go and drink it." I took it off to my comrade, and we both
sat down under our artificial wall close by our fire to try and enjoy
ourselves as best the inclemency of the weather would allow us,
keeping, however, near our officers' green-carpeted nature's
dining-room, so that if we were wanted we could hear them call. But
when they did so, which was in a short time, it was for us to clear
away, with orders at the same time to keep the remainder of the beef
for ourselves; so we removed our dinner traps, passing a good many
remarks in a jocular spirit on our green pasture, wet cloth, and our
scientific dishes, plates, knives, and forks, much to the amusement of
the colonel and captain who were looking on, and then sat down to our
own supper, which we very much needed. I remember remarking to my
comrade that we had not done so badly over our cooking after all, but
perhaps it was only the hunger that made us think so. After finishing
our supper and drinking the greater part of our rum, which no doubt
got to a certain extent into our heads and served to keep out the cold
and wet and make us generally comfortable, we curled ourselves into
our blankets and lay down on the wet ground to rest.

The rain descended in torrents all night and completely soaked us,
but the morning broke out clear, and after we had disposed of the rest
of our beef and rum, we joined all hands at work in wringing and
shaking the water out of our blankets before putting them up into our
knapsacks. We were obliged to do this while they were damp for fear of
an attack from the enemy, it being a general rule to keep all in
readiness; and, indeed, on this occasion it was not more than an hour
after these preparations that the French assailed us