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 1 ' 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 



