e, but it's a very good
one, and he is a bright gentlemanly youngster as you would wish
to see. His name is Jones. Do you remember him? He will be a
godsend to me. I have him to chum with me on this march.

"Keep up your letters as you love me. You at home little know
what it is to enjoy a letter. Never mind what you put in it;
anything will do from home, and I've nobody much else to write to
me.

"There goes the 'assembly.' Why, I can't think, seeing that we
have done our day's march. However, I must turn out and see
what's up."

* * * * * * * * * *

"December.

"I have just fallen on this letter, which I had quite forgotten,
or, rather, had fancied I had sent off to you three weeks and
more ago. My baggage has just come to hand, and the scrawl turned
up in my paper cases. Well, I have plenty to tell you now, at any
rate, if I have time to tell it. That 'assembly' which stopped me
short sounded in consequence of the arrival of one of the
commander-in-chief's aides in our camp with the news that the
enemy was over the Sutlej. We were to march at once, with two
six-pounders and a squadron of cavalry, on a fort occupied by an
outlying lot of them which commanded a ford, and was to be taken
and destroyed, and the rascals who held it dispersed; after which
we were to join the main army. Our colonel had the command, so we
were on the route within an hour, leaving a company and the
baggage to follow as it could; and from that time to this, forced
marching and hard fighting have been the order of the day.

"We drew first blood next morning. The enemy were in some force
outside the fort, and showed fight in very rough ground covered
with bushes, out of which we had to drive them, which we did
after a sharp struggle, and the main body drew off altogether.
Then the fort had to be taken. Our two guns worked away at it
till dark. In the night two of the gunners, who volunteered for
the service, crept close up to the place, and reported that there
was nothing to hinder our running right into it. Accordingly the
colonel resolved to rush it at daybreak, and my company was told
off to lead. The captain being absent, I had to command. I was
with the dear old chief the last thing at night, getting his
instructions; ten minutes with him before going into action would
make a hare fight.

"There was cover to within one hundred and fifty yards of the
place; and there I, and poor little Jones; and the men, spent the
night in a dr