A RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE IN A CAR. 207 



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half an hour passed quickly, all of us relating some 

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

 — 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 



Ipfallen you during the war." He complied, and 

 ken and there, gentle reader, I heard from his 

 bs the story which, for the entertainment of 

 riends, I afterward Avrote out. It left a deep 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 KIDE 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 wiU not be altogether unpleas- 

 ant. 



