tight to his lips. He then blew a rasping, grating blast upon
the air, ear-splitting and dissonant, that was his own rendition of a
few bars of Yankee Doodle.

The blouse, being dark, had given me much hope; the air gave me
certainty; and before the bugler could wind his final note, I became one
of the group.

My pantaloons showed that I was an officer, but in all other respects I
appeared less than a highwayman. Accustomed to roughnesses, however, the
men before me would not have divined that I was miserable, had not my
appearance been by a few degrees more wretched than that of the most
dilapidated of warriors. They gave over, the one his mess, the other his
music, for a second, to inquire into my circumstances, and then
conducted me to the Major who had command of the detachment some quarter
of a mile in the rear.

The eight days' leave-of-absence that was given me, after a full report
at headquarters, garnished with less ornament than the present record,
afforded me an opportunity to reach my physician in time to have it
extended by ten more; and in that period I learned from a letter,
written in a thin, peaked hand, that the Adjutant T---- had escaped, but
had been shot in the thigh. The compass, that had been his cloud by day
and pillar of fire by night during his sad exodus, was returned to me,
with his old lady-mother's thanks. Many simple, yet touching, speeches
welled up from her rich heart, and shone on the thin white paper; and,
no doubt, her great, manly son was tended by another, whilst, at her
escritoire, the kindly epistle was made for me. In the subsequent hurry
of camp-life, I received a second, that contained all those mournful
expressions of resignation, and dependence upon the Higher Power, which
broken-hearted Christians so sweetly utter. The Adjutant T----, indeed,
had received his solemn quietus in running from the Libby Prison, and
the extinguisher of his life was down.

DOCTOR JOHNS.

XXVIII.

"Doctor, we miss Reuby," said the Tew partners.

And the good old people said it with feeling,--though, over and over, at
winter's dusk, the boy had given a sharp rattle to their shop-door, and
the warning bell called them away from their snug fire only to see his
light pair of heels whisking around the corner of the Eagle Tavern. The
mischief in the lad was, indeed, of such elastic, irrepressible temper,
that even the gravest of the parishioners were disposed to regard it
with a frown i