were better than his opponent's
ten beans. Then some one of the party, seated at the end of the table,
would say:

"I SEE THEM TEN BEANS."

Well, so did I, and everybody else about there. We couldn't help but
see them. Why, therefore, need he make so superfluous a remark? Then
the other would say:

"I CALL YOU."

But I didn't hear him _call_. All he would do was, to lay his beans on
the pile in the middle of the table, and soon they all spread out some
pictures and dots that were printed on white pasteboard. Then _one
man_ reaches out his hand and _draws_ over the beans to his side; and
he smiles complacently, and all the others look beat and crabbed. And
this they call a little game of _draw_.

Charley Clark and Captain Westcott say 'tis a bad practice; _and they
ought to know_.

PROFANITY IN THE ARMY.

It is astonishing how rapidly men in the service become profane. I
never before appreciated the oft-quoted phrase, "He swears like a
trooper." Young men whom I have noticed, in times gone by, for their
urbanity and quiet demeanor, now use language unbecoming gentlemen
upon any occasion. But here it is overlooked, because "_everybody does
it_;" but, to my mind,

"'Tis a custom more honored in the breach than the observance."

Gambling, too! O, how they take to it! "O, it's just for pastime,"
says one. Yes; but it is a pastime that will grow and grow, and drag
many a one to ruin. Among the many ways that the boys have of evading
the law against it in camp is, going off into the woods and taking a
"quiet game," as they term it. Chuck-a-luck, sweat-cloth, and every
species of device for swindling are resorted to by the baser sort.

CHAPTER XVII.

Hard on the Sutler: Spiritualism Tried -- A Specimen of
Southern Poetry -- Singular -- March to Nashville -- General
Steadman Challenged by a Woman -- Nigger Question -- "Rebels
Returning."

HARD ON THE SUTLER--SPIRITUALISM TRIED.

The officers of some regiments will drink--that is, they can be
_induced_.

There was a sutler, a great devotee to the modern science--if science
it can be called--of spiritualism. The officers found this out, and
determined to play upon his credulity. The quarter-master was quite a
wag, and lent himself to the proposed fun. His large tent was
prepared: holes were made in it, and long black threads attached to
various articles in the apartment, and one or two persons stationed to
play upon these strin