A RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE IN A CAR. 207 



half an hour passed quickly, all of us relating some 

 " experience." At last I proposed that Mr. Roberts 

 — for so we will call him — should entertain us ; 

 " and/' continued I, " if I am right in my surmise 

 that you have seen service and been under fire, give 

 us some adventure or incident which may have 

 befallen you during the war." He complied, and 

 then and there, gentle reader, I heard from his 

 lips the story which, for the entertainment of 

 friends, I afterward wrote out. It left a deej) im- 

 pression upon all who heard it around our camp- 

 fire under the pines that night ; and from the mind 

 of one I know has never been erased the impres- 

 sion made by the story, which I have named 



A RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE IN A FREIGHT- 

 CAR. 



" Well," said the stranger, as he loosened his belt 

 and stretched himself in an easy, recumbent posi- 

 tion, " it is not more than fair that I should throw 

 something into the stock of common entertain- 

 ment ; but the story I am to tell you is a sad one, 

 and, I fear, will not add to the pleasure of the 

 evening. As you desire it, however, and it comes 

 in the line of the request that I. would narrate 

 some personal episode of the war, I will tell it, and 

 trust the impression will not be altogether unpleas- 

 ant. 



