hite conversation.

'Hallo, Jim,' I said; 'have you got back?'

'Yas, sar,' replied Jim, grinning all over as if he had some agreeable
thing to communicate.

'Where is Moye?' asked the Colonel.

'Kotched, massa; I'se got de padlocks on him.'

'Kotched,' echoed half a dozen darkies, who stood near enough to hear;
'Ole Moye is kotched,' ran through the crowd, till the music ceased, and
a shout went up from two hundred black throats that made the old trees
tremble.

'Now gib him de lashes, Massa Davy,' cried the old nurse. 'Gib him what
he gabe pore Sam; but mine dat you keeps widin de law.'

'Never fear, Aunty,' said the Colonel; 'I'll give him ----.'

How the Colonel kept his word will be told in another number.

* * * * *

ACTIVE SERVICE; OR, CAMPAIGNING IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

I have been to the war; I have seen armed secessionists, and I have seen
them run; but, more than that, I have seen _Active Service_. It was
_active_, and no mistake.

In April last, my country needed my services; I had been playing
soldier, and I felt it my duty to respond to the call of the President.
I did respond. I uncovered my head, raised my right hand, and solemnly
swore to obey the President of the United States for three months. The
three months have expired, and I am once more a free American citizen,
and for the first time in my life I know what it is to be _free_.

ACTIVE SERVICE! That's what the military men call it. I have often read
of it; I have heard men talk about it; but now I have seen it. I meet
people every day who congratulate me on my safe return, and say, 'I
suppose you are going again?' Perhaps I am.

It was a beautiful day when our company left home, and what a crowd of
people assembled to see us off! What a waving of banners and
handkerchiefs; what shouting and cheering; what an endless amount of
hand-shaking; how many 'farewells,' 'good-bys,' and
'take-care-of-yourselves,' were spoken; all of this had to be gone
through with, and our company run the gauntlet and nobody was hurt.

Going to war is no child's play, as many seem to suppose. Once sworn in
as a _private_, you become a tool, a mere thing, to do another's
bidding. I do not say this to discourage enlistments,--far from it. I am
only speaking the truth. 'Forewarned, forearmed.' If there is a hard
life upon earth, it is that of a common soldier; he may be the bravest
man in the army, he may perform an endless a