94 HORSE, FOOT, AND DRAGOONS. 



blanket under us and a big woollen one over us, my valise for 

 a pillow, we laid down in the straw by the roaring fire. Bidding 

 me a kind good-night, my companion was soon in the land of 

 dreams, while I still lay watching the sleeping men and the 

 silent figure of the fire-guard, as he sat on a log of wood, poring 

 over a story-book by the light of the frames, and occasionally 

 rising to replenish the fire from a pile of wood at his side. My 

 neighbor on my other side was a great stout sergeant, who 

 snored like a trooper, and who kept edging up to me for warmth 

 and creature comfort. Never awakenino- if I made the sliorht- 

 est movement to escape from his too close companionship, the 

 worthy fellow would grunt and edge up again until close to me, 

 when at last I gave up in despair and philosophically resigned 

 myself to the inevitable. Gradually my eyes closed, the man 

 by the fire grew more indistinct — are there two men reading 

 romances.'' or is it one man with two heads.'' — I felt the 

 comfortable, soothing warmth of early sleep, and soon all was 

 oblivion. 



What was that.'* Am I a boy again, and is it the Fourth of 

 July, and have my playmates begun the celebration of the day 

 with the phiz and bang of the early fire -cracker.'' Something 

 has disturbed my slumber, and still dreaming that it is time 

 to get up, and that Harry Brown and Tommy Black are out 

 before me on Independence Day, I half open my eyes. Pop! 

 pop ! prrrutt ! pop ! Those are no fire-crackers, nor is it Harry 

 Brown who is shaking me by the arm and speaking to me 

 in guttural German, but my honest friend, the sergeant, who 

 is telling me that the outposts have been attacked, and who 

 is "blankinir" the industrious fellows on the other side, who 

 cannot let peacefully disposed soldiers enjoy their well-earned 

 night's repose. As I sprang to my feet and looked about me, 

 I saw the men rising from the straw and gazing, half dazed, out 



