the rain falling in our
faces, slept as soundly as though our bed was one of down instead of the
wet ground.

Awaking about 10 o'clock, I started out on a reconnoissance, and, after
carefully skirmishing around for an hour, found that we were near the
Saluda river, and that there was a ferry near by, the river at this point
being very wide. We did not wish to cross this river, and had tried hard
to avoid it, but by taking the wrong road at the forks had run right onto
it.

Instead of laying by this day, we started out to try to find a road that
led in the right direction. We found some persimmons, which we gathered
and ate to satisfy our hunger; but tramped all day in the rain until 4
o'clock in the afternoon before we found a road that seemed to run in the
direction we wished to go. When we finally came to a road that seemed to
point to the northwest, we pushed on rapidly for sixteen miles before
halting, although we were hungry and tired; and when we finally came to
another guide board, we found that we were only forty-four miles from
Columbia. This was Tuesday, the 18th, and we had left Columbia the morning
of the 14th, thus making an average of only eleven miles a day, or rather
a night.

We had nothing to eat but raw corn, which we shelled from the cob, and
munched as we walked. My legs had now became swollen and inflamed to such
an extent that, had I been at home, I would not have thought I could walk
a dozen blocks, still we marched sixteen miles that night, and the next
morning we went into camp within the sound of passing cars. That night we
started out again, but had not gone more than half a mile before we again
came upon the river. This was discouraging for, as I have said, we did not
wish to cross the river but to go in a parallel direction, and this road
ended at a ferry.

There was nothing to do but go back and try to find a road that branched
off from the one we were just traveling. The country through which we
were passing was densely wooded, and the weather was cloudy and rainy,
and, after tramping all day and all the next night, we finally went into
camp again; but where we could not tell, except that it was in the woods.
We had traveled hither and thither for thirty-six hours without anything
to eat.

After resting and sleeping until about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, we
started out again to find a road. We found a corn field in which some
beans had been planted between the hills, and gathered t