in the road. Several
cornfields were honored by our making them our headquarters for a time,
and we satisfied our hunger and filled up our larder with corn and green
watermelons. We made good time, and at night found a good place and
slept soundly, having succeeded in getting thoroughly dried.

The next day we resumed our tramp, taking each available opportunity of
lolling in the streams of water which we had to cross, thus refreshing
ourselves very much.

Seeing a lot of pigs in an open road, near a cornfield, where we had
gone for a repast, we vainly sought to catch one. Our affection for
those pigs was something moving in its character, at least it kept us
moving in a very lively manner for a time. Those pigs were deaf to all
our blandishments, and both vigorously and effectually prevented us from
embracing what seemed at times to be a good opportunity for a dinner of
pork. When it seemed hopeless to expect that any of the animals would
listen to reason, Captain Gedney suddenly thought of the axe, which he
had laid down until the capture of the pig should have been
accomplished. Soon the axe and numerous expletives were being hurled
promiscuously at the animals, but his remarks seemed to have no more
effect than the axe. All of a sudden the captain changed his tactics,
and, instead of hurling the axe first and the wordy missiles after the
axe had missed its mark, he savagely directed certain forcible remarks
toward an animal that had repeatedly escaped the axe, and then hurled
the latter in the same direction. Whether as a result of the preliminary
remarks or not, the pig suddenly stopped and looked at his assailant,
when the axe, which had previously missed the animal by falling short or
passing across his wake, struck him in the loin, and he fell to the
ground, a victim of the evil passions of man and his keen appreciation
of roast pig.

Our matches had been ruined, and we had become tired of trying to light
a fire with the damp articles, but the exigency of this case again
caused us to go hopelessly over our stock in a very careful manner. Our
joy may be imagined when Lieutenant Mahon found a few stray matches
secreted in his vest lining, where, by some mistake, they had escaped a
wetting sufficient to ruin them, and we soon had our prize over a fire
in a secluded nook, later enjoying such a meal as we had not had in a
good while.

The executioner received a vote of thanks for his devotion to our cause,
and