38 WHIP AND SPUR. 



stone rock and bursting upon the world a full- 

 grown river. Within our camp this wonderful 

 spring broke forth, and close at hand was a large 

 grist-mill that it drove. We were a self-sustain- 

 ing community, — in this, that we foraged our 

 own corn and ground our own meal. With simi- 

 lar industry we provided ourselves with fish, flesh, 

 and fowl. 



The trees were bare with the November frosts, 

 but the Indian summer had come, and, day after 

 day, it bathed every twig and spray with its am- 

 ber breath, warming all nature to a second life, 

 and floating the remoter hills far away into a hazy 

 dreamland. 



But personally, notwithstanding all this, I was 

 not content : I was practically a dismounted cav- 

 alryman. Indeed, it would even have been a pity 

 to see a colonel of infantry riding such brutes as 

 fell to my lot, for good weight-carriers were rare 

 in that section. I had paid a very high price for 

 a young thoroughbred stallion (afterwards, hap- 

 pily, sold for a large advance), only to find him a 

 year too young for his work, and the regiment 



