of thunder
had driven away this vender of the divinity of the institution of
slavery.

In this room, on seats rudely improvised, for its proper furniture had
long since disappeared, some officers not on duty were passing a
pleasant April afternoon, when their reveries of other days and rehashes
of old camp yarns were interrupted by the sudden advent of an officer
who a week previously had been detailed in charge of a number of men to
form part of an outer picket station some distance up the river. His
face indicated news, and he was at once the centre of attraction.

"Colonel!" exclaimed he, without waiting to be questioned, "two of our
best men have been taken prisoners, and the little Dutch Doctor----"

"What has happened to him?" from several at once.

"Was taken prisoner and released, but had his horse stolen."

His hearers breathed freer when they heard of the personal safety of the
Doctor, and the officer continued--

"And the loss of our men and his horse has all happened through the
carelessness,--to treat it mildly,--of the exhorting Colonel. He is in
command of the station, and yesterday afternoon the Doctor was on duty
at his head-quarters. In came one of the black-eyed beauties that live
in a house near the ford, about half a mile from the station, boo-hooing
at a terrible rate--that the youngest rebel of her family was dying with
the croup--and that no doctor was near--and all that old story. The
Colonel was fool enough to order the Doctor to mount his horse and go
with the woman. Well, the Doctor had got near the house, when out sprang
two Mississippi Riflemen from the pines on either side of the road and
levelled their pieces at him. The Doctor had to dismount, and they sent
him back on foot. Luckily the Colonel, who, as black Charley says, has
been praying for a star for some time past, had borrowed the Doctor's
dress sword on the pretence that it was lighter to carry, but on the
ground, really, that it looked more Brigadier-like, or he would have
lost that too. I was on duty down by the river hardly two hours after it
happened, and as there is no firing now along the picket line the
soldiers were free-and-easy on both sides. All at once I heard laughter
on the other side, and looking over, I saw a short, thick-set Grey-back
riding the stolen horse near the water's edge. Presently two other
Grey-backs sprang on either side of the horse's head, and with pieces
levelled, in tones loud enough for us