is there's not a popular
rail in it."

"And, Doctor," continued Harry, flinging the canteens over his shoulder,
"you'll stay and take a cup of coffee and sleep with us to-night, won't
you? The trains are all far behind, and the hospital wagon must be miles
away."

"Seems to me that I've heard something of the impropriety of visiting
your friends just about mealtime," said the Doctor quizzically, "but a
cup of coffee just now has more charms for me than rigid etiquette, so
I'll thankfully accept your kind invitation. Some day I'll reciprocate
with liberality in doses of quinine."

In less time than that taken by well-appointed kitchens to furnish
"Hot Meals to Order" the four were sitting on their blankets around a
comfortable fire of rails and cedar logs, eating hard bread and broiled
fat pork, and drinking strong black coffee, which the magic of the open
air had transmuted into delightfully delicate and relishable viands.

"You are indebted to me," said Dr. Denslow, as he finished the last
crumb and drop of his portion of the food, "for the accession to your
company at this needful time, of a tower of strength in the person of
Lieutenant Jacob Alspaugh."

Abe groaned; the Doctor looked at him with well-feigned astonishment,
and continued:

"That gore-hungry patriot, as you know, has been home several months on
recruiting duty, by virtue of a certificate which he wheedled out of old
Moxon. At last, when he couldn't keep away any longer, he started back,
but he carefully restrained his natural impetuosity in rushing to
the tented field, and his journey from Sardis to Nashville was a fine
specimen of easy deliberation. There was not a sign of ungentlemanly
hurry in any part of it. He came into my ward at Nashville with violent
symptoms of a half-dozen speedily fatal diseases. I was cruel enough to
see a coincidence in this attack and the general marching orders, and I
prescribed for his ailments a thorough course of open air exercise. To
be sure that my prescription would be taken I had the Provost-Marshal
interest himself in my patient's case, and the result was that Alspaugh
joined the regiment, and so far has found it difficult to get away from
it. It's the unexpected that happens, the French say, and there is
a bare possibility that he may do the country some service by the
accidental discharge of his duty."

"The possibility is too remote to waste time considering," said Harry.

They lay down together upon