are--and I'm d--- glad you are so nicely fixed. It's the
least they could do for you and you ought to be able to enjoy it for ten
years before they find any spavins on you if you will behave yourself,
but I guess you will drift into that Army and Navy Club and round up
with a lot of those old alkalied prairie-dogs whom neither Indians
nor whiskey could kill and Mr. Gout will take you over his route to
Arlington.

I'm on the water wagon and I feel like a young mule. I am never going to
get down again to try the walking. If I lose my whip I am going to drive
right on and leave it.

We are having a fine summer and I may run over to Washington this winter
and throw my eye over you to see how you go. We made a trip down to New
Foundland but saw nothing worth while. I guess I am getting to be an old
swat--I can't see anything that didn't happen twenty years ago,

Y-- FREDERICK R.

At the close of the year just gone, this great soul passed from the
earth leaving a blank in our lives that nothing can ever fill. Passed
into the great Beyond whose mysteries were always troubling his mind.
Suddenly and swiftly the call came--the hand was stilled and the
restless spirit took its flight.

CHAPTER XXXIII. DAVID'S ISLAND

At Davids' Island the four happiest years of my army life glided swiftly
away.

There was a small steam tug which made regular and frequent trips over
to New Rochelle and we enjoyed our intercourse with the artists and
players who lived there.

Zogbaum, whose well known pictures of sailors and warships and soldiers
had reached us even in the far West, and whose charming family added so
much to our pleasure.

Julian Hawthorne with his daughter Hildegarde, now so well known as a
literary critic; Henry Loomis Nelson, whose fair daughter Margaret
came to our little dances and promptly fell in love with a young, slim,
straight Artillery officer. A case of love at first sight, followed by a
short courtship and a beautiful little country wedding at Miss Nelson's
home on the old Pelham Road, where Hildegarde Hawthorne was bridesmaid
in a white dress and scarlet flowers (the artillery colors) and many
famous literary people from everywhere were present.

Augustus Thomas, the brilliant playwright, whose home was near the
Remingtons on Lathers' Hill, and whose wife, so young, so beautiful and
so accomplished, made that home attractive and charming.

Francis Wilson, known to the world at large, first as a s