rs are
necessary, but I can't get over this feeling. Isn't it the same way with
you, Hector?"

"Exactly the same, Leonidas," replied Lieutenant-Colonel Hector
St. Hilaire. "You and I fought together in Mexico, Leonidas, then on the
plains, and now in this gigantic struggle, but under whatever guise and,
wherever it may be, I find its visage always hideous. I don't think we
soldiers are to blame. We don't make the wars although we have to fight
'em."

"Increasing years, Hector, have not dimmed those perceptive faculties of
yours, which I may justly call brilliant."

"Thanks, Leonidas, you and I have always had a proper conception of the
worth of each other."

"If you will pardon me for speaking, sir," said St. Clair, "there is one
man I'd like to find, when this war is over."

"'What is the appearance of this man, Arthur?" asked Colonel Talbot.

"I don't know exactly how he looks, sir, though I've heard of him often,
and I shall certainly know him when I meet him. You understand, sir,
that, while I've not seen him, he has very remarkable characteristics of
manner."

"And what may those be, Arthur? Are they so salient that you would
recognize them at once?"

"Certainly, sir. He has an uncommonly loud voice, which he uses nearly
all the time and without restraint. Words fairly pour from his tongue.
Facts he scorns. He soars aloft on the wings of fancy. Many people who
have listened to him have felt persuaded by his talk, but he is perhaps
not so popular now."

"An extraordinary person, Arthur. But why are you so anxious to find
him?"

"Because I wish, sir, to lay upon him the hands of violence. I would
thrash him and beat him until he yelled for mercy, and then I would
thrash him and beat him again. I should want the original pair of
seven-leagued boots, not that I might make such fast time, but that I
might kick him at a single kick from one county to another, and back,
and then over and over past counting. I'd duck him in a river until he
gasped for breath, I'd drag him naked through a briar patch, and then
I'd tar and feather him, and ride him on a rail."

"Heavens, Arthur! I didn't dream that your nature contained so much
cruelty! Who is this person over whose torture you would gloat like a
red Indian?"

"It is the man who first said that one Southerner could whip five
Yankees."

"Arthur," said Colonel Talbot, "your anger is just and becomes you.
When the war is over, if we all are sp