that he was only waiting while the wench baked him a
hoe-cake.

"Guard duty for the night," said the Colonel.

"Poor devil! He will have to keep awake, and can't sing--'Sleeping I
dream, love, dream, love, of thee'"--said the poetical Lieutenant, who
chanced to be one of the group.

No. 4. Caught by the General Commanding Division, twenty feet high on a
persimmon tree, and Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 on the ground below; also
"Lying."

"Another persimmon crowd. Every night we are troubled with the persimmon
business," said the Colonel; "but what does the 'also Lying' mean?"

"Why," said a frank fellow of the crowd, "you see when the old General
came up, I said it was a picket station, and that the man up the tree
was looking out for the enemy. It was a big thing, I thought, but the
General didn't see it, and he swore he would persimmon us."

"Which meant," said the Colonel, "that you would lose your persimmons,
and go on extra police duty for forty-eight hours each."

The crowd were lectured upon straggling, that too frequent offence of
Volunteers, and after a severe reprimand dismissed.

The country abounded in persimmon trees, and their golden fruit was a
sore temptation to teeth sharpened on army crackers. As the season
advanced, and persimmons became more palatable, crowds would thus be
brought up nightly for punishment. This summary procedure was an
innovation by the Brigadier upon the Red-Tape formulary of
Courts-martial, so rigidly adhered to, and fondly indulged in, by the
General of Division. The Brigadier would frequently himself dispose of
delinquencies of the kind, telling the boys in a manner that made them
feel that he cared for their welfare, that they had been entrusted to
him by the country for its service, and that he considered himself under
obligations to their relatives and friends to see that while under his
command their characters received no detriment, and while becoming good
soldiers they would not grow to be bad citizens. He made them realize,
that although soldiers they were still citizens; and many a man has left
him all the better for a reprimand which reminded him of duties to
relatives and society at large. How much nobility of soul might be
spared to the country with care of this kind, on the part of commanders.
Punishment is necessary--but how many to whom it is intrusted forget
that in giving it a moral effect upon society, care should be taken
that it may operate beneficially