ed one side of his face without disturbing the other. At this moment
the bell for dinner rang, and the little colored fellow broke away and
ran to his division, to fall in ranks, so that he would not miss his
noon meal. Once more Mr. Horserider entered his cell and we were locked
in. A more comical object I never beheld; he did not even possess the
beauty of a baboon; he might certainly have passed for the eighth wonder
of the world. When he came in I handed him the small looking-glass and
asked him how he liked his hair-cut. Remember, one side of his head and
face was shaved close, and the other covered with long sandy hair and
beard. Looking into the glass, he exclaimed: "Holy Moses! and who am
I, anyway?" I answered his question by stating that he favored Mr.
What-Is-It. He was very uneasy for a time, thinking that he was going to
be left in that condition. He wanted to know of me if all horse-thieves
of the penitentiary wore their hair and whiskers in this style. I
comforted him all I could by imparting the information that they did. He
was much relieved when the darkey returned after dinner and finished the
shaving.

I was next taken out of my cell to pass a medical examination. Dr.
Mooney, the gentlemanly officer in charge of the hospital, put in an
appearance with a large book under his arm and sat down by a table. I
was ushered into his presence. He began asking me questions, and
wrote down my answers in his book, which proved to be the physician's
register.

"Have you any decayed teeth?" was his first question,

"No, sir," was my reply.

"Have you ever lost any teeth?"

"No, sir."

"Have you ever had the measles?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you ever had the mumps?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you ever had the chicken-pox?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you ever had the thresh?"

Well, I didn't know what was meant by the thresh. I knew that I had been
"thrashed" a great many times, and inferred from that fact that I must
have had the disease at some time or other in my youth, so I answered,

"Yes, sir."

"Have you ever had the itch?"

"What kind?" said I. "The old fashioned seven year kind? Y-e-s, sir, I
have had it."

He then continued asking me questions, and wanted to know if I ever
had a great many diseases, the names of which I had never heard before.
Since I catch almost everything that comes along, I supposed, of course,
that at some period during my childhood, youth or early manhood I had
suffered from a