s, after I
met him, before we went into camp.

CHAPTER XV.

HOW TO ROAST A CHICKEN--A GOOD SQUARE MEAL ONCE MORE--ON THE TRAMP
AGAIN--WE MEET A DARKEY WHO FURNISHES US SUPPER AND CHICKENS FROM HIS
MASTER'S HEN COOP--SURPRISED BY TWO WHITE MEN WHILE EATING
BREAKFAST--PASSING THROUGH WALHALLA--AVOIDING SOME CAVALRY.

When we made camp on this, the twelfth day of my tramp, it was back of a
plantation, in a large woods, near a spring. We always made our camp near
good water, if possible. Here I showed the captain how to cook a chicken;
and for the benefit of camping parties I give the receipt here, which, if
followed, will, I assure them, afford as fine a dinner as can be made from
a chicken.

Bending over a small sappling about two inches through at the butt, I
fastened the top to the roots of a tree, and then trimmed off the
branches. From the centre of the bow thus formed, I hung the chicken by
means of a limb with a hook on the lower end, so that the chicken nearly
reached the ground. Then building a fire in a circle around the fowl, with
dry twigs and bark, as a blacksmith would to heat a wagon tire, I soon had
a chicken as finely browned as ever was cooked in an oven. I salted it as
it roasted and within an hour I ate the first satisfactory meal I had
eaten in eleven days, roast chicken and corn bread, with a tin cup full of
cold water. After a good sleep which lasted until nearly dark, I felt like
a new man, and only for my swollen and inflamed feet and legs, would have
felt fit to endure anything.

We started out at dark, having made a supper of the remains of the chicken
and some corn bread, and, before daylight had made twenty miles, though my
legs kept getting worse, if possible, and pained me so that at times I
could scarcely keep from crying out in my agony.

Captain Alban would not leave me, and encouraged me to renewed efforts
when I was almost fainting from pain.

It was Saturday night that I met Alban, and on Monday we ate the last of
our chickens and corn bread, and with full stomachs, but empty haversacks,
we started out at dark again. About nine o'clock, as we were going along
through a piece of woods, we suddenly came upon a negro with a large
wooden trunk on his head. He was frightened at first but after finding out
that we were Yankees, he was about the most delighted darkey I ever saw. I
told him I would give him twenty dollars if he would get me five chickens,
and corn bread enough t