S.' which will always remain. If the horses are found in your
possession, later, you may have to say that they were given to you by
an agent of the quartermaster. If they are taken from you, grin and bear
it. If you are permitted to keep them, and they do you any good, I shall
be very glad. If I get hauled over the coals for giving aid and comfort
to the enemy, I will lie out of it some way, or stand my punishment like
a little man. The horses are yours, as far as I am concerned."

"Well, sah, you are a perfect gentleman, sah," said the colonel, as he
took my hand and shook it cordially. "And I should be proud to entertain
you at my place, sah. We have got little left, sah, but you are welcome
to our home at any time. I am an old man, with a bullet in my leg.
Two of my boys are dead, in Virginia, sah, and I have one boy who is a
prisoner at the north. If he comes home alive, we will be able to make
a living and have a home again. The war has been a terrible blow to
us all, sah. I reckon both sides, sah, have got about enough, and
both sides have made cussed, fools of themselves. When this affair is
settled, sah, the north and south will be better friends than ever, sah.
I wish you a long life, sah."

The other gentlemen expressed thanks, and they picked out two or three
horses apiece and led them away, it seemed to me as happy a lot of
gentlemen as I ever saw. I called the colored man, and we started
for camp. For a five dollar bill, and a promise to always take a deep
interest in the colored man's welfare, I got his promise that he would
never tell anybody about my giving the horses away, and for nearly a
year he kept his promise. I went back to headquarters and reported that
the animals had been disposed of, and that evening I was invited to set
into a poker game with some of the officers, and when we got up I
had won over a hundred dollars. I looked upon the streak of luck as a
premium for my kindness to the gentlemen who took the horses, but some
of the officers seemed to have a suspicion that I concealed cards up my
sleeve. It is thus that the best of us are misunderstood.

CHAPTER XX.

I Demonstrate that Gambling Does Not Pay--I Cause a General
Stampede--Christmas in the Pine Woods of Alabama--Millions
of Dollars, but no Christmas Dinner.

When I went away from the party of officers, where we had been playing
draw-poker, with a hundred dollars in my pocket, which I had won from
men who t