RUBY. 35 



vantage of those who did not. I cannot recall 

 an instance of taking a bribe, even in the form 

 of a pleasant smile. It was probably easier, in 

 the long run, to be fair than to be unfair, and 

 therefore the laziest private ever ordered on extra 

 duty could not lay his hand on his heart and say 

 he thinks it was done because he was not diligent 

 in foraging for turkeys and hens for my private 

 mess. I had very early in life been impressed 

 with the consciousness that the way of the trans- 

 gressor is not easy ; and as I wanted my way to 

 be easy, I fell into the way of not transgressing. 

 This may not have been a very worthy motive 

 to actuate the conduct of a military commander ; 

 but perhaps it was as good as the average in 

 our Department of the Southwest, where, if the 

 truth must be told, virtue did not have it all its 

 own way, — we were different from troops farther 

 east ; and although it made me sometimes wince 

 to have my conduct ascribed to a noble upright- 

 ness of purpose, and showed that it wtfuld really 

 have been more honest not to have been quite 

 so good, yet one should perhaps be satisfied with 



