RUBY. 51 



so Ruby never quite filled Vixen's place ; but 

 as a serviceable friend, he was all that could be 

 desired. The unsupplied want of my life, that 

 had made me restless and discontented, was now 

 satisfied, and my duties became easy, and my 

 pastimes (the principal times of South Missouri 

 warfare) entirely agreeable. 



It was no slight addition to these sources of 

 contentment to feel that the command had at last 

 awakened to a sense of its dereliction, and was 

 fast reforming its ways. I had hardly owned 

 Ruby for a fortnight before the old cheerfulness 

 and alacrity returned to the regiment, and by the 

 time we broke up our camp on the Roubie d'Eaux 

 and went over to Lebanon for the shooting sea- 

 son, the entire organization was in a most satis- 

 factory condition. 



Our life in Lebanon was an episode of the war 

 that we shall not soon forget. To the best of my 

 knowledge and belief, after Price had retreated 

 from Pea Ridge, the only organized forces of armed 

 Rebels to be found north of the White River were 

 local bands of jay-hawkers, whose rebellion was 



