ew all the pangs of
emptiness; I had scarcely strength to motion away the pertinacious
insects. A soldier gave me a trifle of boiling water from his canteen;
but I gasped for air; we were living in a vacuum. Sahara could not have
been so fierce and burning. Two of us started off to find a spring. We
made our way from shade to shade, expiring at every step, and finally,
at the base of the hill, on the brink of the swamp, discovered a rill of
tepid water, that evaporated before it had trickled a hundred yards. If
a sleek and venomous water-snake--for there were thousands of them
hereabout--had coiled in the channel, I would still have sucked the
draught, bending down as I did. Then I bethought me of my pony. He had
neither been fed nor watered for twenty hours, and I hastened to obtain
him from his place along the woodside. To my terror, he was gone.
Forgetful of my weakness, I passed rapidly, hither and thither,
inquiring of cavalry-men, and entertaining suspicions of every person in
the vicinity. Finally, I espied him in charge of a rough, thievish
sabreman, who affected not to see me. I went up to the animal, and
pulled the reins from his shoulder, to discover the brand mark,--"U. S."
As I surmised, he had not been branded, and I turned indignantly upon
the fellow:--

"My friend, how came you by this horse?"

"Quartermaster!" said the man, guiltily.

"No sir! He belongs to me. Take off that cavalry-saddle, and find mine,
immediately."

"Not if the court knows itself," said the man--"and it thinks it do!"

"Then," said I, white with rage, "I shall report you at once, for
theft."

"You may, if you want to," replied the man, carelessly.

I struck off at once for the new Provost Quarters, at a farm-house,
close by. The possible failure to regain my animal, filled me with
rueful thoughts. How was I, so dismounted, to reach the distant river? I
should die, or starve, on the way. I thought I should faint, when I came
to the end of the first field, and leaned, tremblingly, against a tree.
I caught myself sobbing, directly, like a girl, and my mind ran upon the
coolness of my home with my own breezy bedroom, soft paintings, and
pleasant books. These themes tortured me with a consciousness of my
folly. I had forsaken them for the wickednesses of this unhappy
campaign. And my body was to blacken by the road-side,--the sable birds
of prey were to be my mourners.

But, looking through my tears, a moving something passed b