BEAR WITH SPECTACLES. 123 



gyman, and that I had come to get him 

 and his dogs to help me kill a bear. The 

 blacks now turned white; or at least white 

 around the lips. The preacher shuddered 

 and shrugged his shoulders and finally 

 groaned in his grief. 



Let us omit the mosquitoes, the miser 

 able babies, nude as nature, and surely 

 very hungry in this beauteous place of fer 

 tility. They hung about my door, a "quar 

 ters" cabin with grass knee high through 

 the cracks in the floor, like flies, till they 

 got all my little store of supplies, save a big 

 flask of "provisions" which General Beau- 

 regard had given me for Colonel Bloom, 

 as a preventive against the deadly fever. 

 No, it was not whiskey, not all whiskey, 

 at least, for it was bitter as gall with qui 

 nine. I had to help the Colonel sample 

 it at first, but I only helped him sample it 

 once. It tasted so vilely that it seemed 

 to me I should, as between the two, prefer 

 fever. 



And such a moon ! The ragged minister 



9 



