chickens, and others quacking
like ducks, and really seemed to rather enjoy the situation. About the
only drawback resulting from our being caught out in the summer rains
was the fact that the water would rust our muskets. In our time we were
required to keep all their metal parts (except the butt-plate) as
bright and shining as new silver dollars. I have put in many an hour
working on my gun with an old rag and powdered dirt, and a corncob, or
pine stick, polishing the barrel, the bands, lock-plate, and
trigger-guard, until they were fit to pass inspection. The inside of
the barrel we would keep clean by the use of a greased wiper and plenty
of hot water. In doing this, we would ordinarily, with our
screw-drivers, take the gun to pieces, and remove from the stock all
metallic parts. I never had any head for machinery, of any kind, but,
from sheer necessity, did acquire enough of the faculty to take apart,
and put together, an army musket,--and that is about the full extent of
my ability in that line. We soon learned to take care of our pieces in
a rain by thoroughly greasing them with a piece of bacon, which would
largely prevent rust from striking in.

We resumed our march to Bolivar early in the morning of the 18th. Our
route was practically parallel with the railroad, crossing it
occasionally. At one of these crossings, late in the afternoon, and
when only five or six miles from Bolivar, I "straggled" again, and took
to the railroad. I soon fell in with three Co. C boys, who had done
likewise. We concluded we would endeavor to get a country supper, and
with that in view, an hour or so before sundown went to a nice looking
farm-house not far from the railroad, and made our wants known to the
occupants. We had selected for our spokesman the oldest one of our
bunch, a soldier perhaps twenty-five years old, named Aleck Cope. He
was something over six feet tall, and about as gaunt as a sand-hill
crane. He was bare-footed, and his feet, in color and general
appearance, looked a good deal like the flappers of an alligator. His
entire garb, on this occasion, consisted of an old wool hat and his
government shirt and drawers. The latter garment, like the "cuttie
sark" of witch Nannie in "Tam O'Shanter," "in longitude was sorely
scanty," coming only a little below his knees, and both habiliments
would have been much improved by a thorough washing. But in the duty
assigned him he acquitted himself well with the people of the h