far away in the
forest, it thundered down on him, and kept him down for two or three days
till he was discovered. To get to him we went in a small canoe, and
paddled ourselves with shingles or wooden tiles, used to cover roofs. On
the way I saw a man on a roof fiddling; only a bit of the roof was above
water. He was waiting for deliverance. Many and strange indeed were all
the scenes and incidents of that inundation, and marvellous the legends
which were told of other freshets in the days of yore.

I never could learn to play cards. Destiny forbade it, and always
stepped in promptly to stop all such proceedings. One night Sandford and
friends sat down to teach me poker, when _bang_, _bang_, went a revolver
outside, and a bullet buried itself in the door close by me. A riotous,
evil-minded darkey, who attended to my washing, had got into a fight, and
was forthwith conveyed to the Bull-pen, or military prison. I was afraid
lest I might lose my shirts, and so "visited him" next day and found him
in irons, but reading a newspaper at his ease. From him I learned the
address of "the coloured lady" who had my underclothing.

The Bull-pen was a picturesque place--a large log enclosure, full of
strange inmates, such as wild guerillas in moccasins, grey-back
Confederates and blue-coat Federals guilty of many a murder, arson, and
much horse-stealing, desolate deserters, often deserving pity--the
_debris_ of a four years' war, the crumbs of the great loaf fallen to the
dirt.

Warm weather came on, and I sent to Philadelphia for a summer suit of
clothes. It came, and it was of a _light grey colour_. At that time
Oxford "dittos," or a suit _pareil partout_, were unknown in West
Virginia. I was dressed from head to foot in Confederate grey. Such a
daring defiance of public opinion, coupled with my mysterious stealing
into the rebel country, made me an object of awe and suspicion--a kind of
Sir Grey Steal!

There was at that time in Charleston a German artillery regiment which
really held the town--that is to say, the height which commanded it. I
had become acquainted with its officers. All at once they gave me the
cold shoulder and cut me. My friend Sandford was very intimate with
them. One evening he asked their Colonel why they scorned me. The
Colonel replied--

"Pecause he's a tamned repel. Aferypody knows it."

Sandford at once explained that I was even known at Washington as a good
Union man, and had, mo