ritten; and God bless his honest old heart,
anyhow!

FOOTNOTES:

[C] Aquatint engraving in England is all but a dead art. It is now
employed only in portraits of race-horses, which are never sold
uncolored, and in plates of the fashions. The present writer had the
honor, twelve years since, of producing the last "great" work (so far as
size was concerned) undertaken in England. It was a monster panorama,
some sixty feet long, representing the funeral procession of the Duke of
Wellington. It was published by the well-known house of Ackermann, in
the Strand; and the writer regrets to say that the house went bankrupt
very shortly afterwards.

LEAVES FROM AN OFFICER'S JOURNAL.

III.

CAMP SAXTON, NEAR BEAUFORT, S. C.
January 3, 1864.

Once, and once only, thus far, the water has frozen in my tent; and the
next morning showed a dense white frost outside. We have still
mocking-birds and crickets and rosebuds and occasional noonday baths in
the river, though the butterflies have vanished, as I remember to have
observed in Fayal, after December. I have been here nearly six weeks
without a rainy day; one or two slight showers there have been, once
interrupting a drill, but never dress parade. For climate, by day, we
might be among the isles of Greece,--though it may be my constant
familiarity with the names of her sages which suggests that impression.
For instance, a voice just now called, near my tent,--"Cato, whar's
Plato?"

The men have somehow got the impression that it is essential to the
validity of a marriage that they should come to me for permission, just
as they used to go to the master; and I rather encourage these little
confidences, because it is so entertaining to hear them. "Now, Cunnel,"
said a faltering swain the other day, "I want for get me one good lady,"
which I approved, especially the limitation as to number. Afterwards I
asked one of the bridegroom's friends whether he thought it a good
match. "Oh, yes, Cunnel," said he, in all the cordiality of friendship,
"John's gwine for marry Venus." I trust the goddess prove herself a
better lady than she appeared during her previous career upon this
planet. But this naturally suggests the isles of Greece again.

_January 7._--On first arriving, I found a good deal of anxiety among
the officers as to the increase of desertions, that being the rock on
which the "Hunter Regiment" split. Now this evil is very nearly stopped,
and we