t, knows how difficult
it is to adjust the weary body to the crags and canyons of the
surface--for the irregularities grow to be such before morning--and how
the rest continues to be broken, night after night, until the flesh has
become ferruginous, and the nerves indifferent to the welfare of the
body, which no longer demands a nice adjustment of particulars, but
finds sound sleep on a pile of big stones with the head resting on a
stump. As we were most of us yet in our infancy as campaigners, we had
not reached this perfection of indifference; and accordingly were
delighted to find how nicely we could fit ourselves in among the rails.

Our sole reliance for rations appearing now to be upon the hard tack in
our haversacks, eked out by an occasional loaf of bread, a jar of
butter, apple sauce, or plum sauce which the company foragers were
lucky enough to pick up, there was great temptation whenever we came to
a halt to indulge in a little desultory foraging on private account;
and as we were now in a farming country there was considerable of this
done. But if the sight of a distant farm house, with the hope of
chickens and cherry trees swimming before the mind, tempted any of us
to indulge without leave in this agreeable recreation so long as to
miss a roll-call, we had a vivid consciousness of sundry extra detail
duties of police or guard awaiting us on our return. This gave a zest
to the enjoyment of the stolen furlough, though it was not apt to be
considered a severely "healthy" termination of an hour off duty. These
penalties were a wiser disciplinary regimen than a rigid system of
provost guards would have been, since it saved the strength of the
regiment for the next day's march, and put the drudgeries of camp duty
upon those who had fairly earned the right, and were also best able to
perform them.

Before the afternoon had passed, however, our commissariat was amply
provided for. Several fat steers were driven into camp, slaughtered and
divided up among the hungry regiments; while the company cooks were not
slow in doing their parts. Some of us had got by hook or by crook a
cake of chocolate, and some a little coffee or tea, which gave rise to
a good deal of lively cup and kettle boiling on private account, which
kept the fires going briskly till dark.

The principal ingredient of some of the beverages which tasted so
deliciously on that occasion, as well as some of the soups, etc., it
may not be amiss to reve