52 WHIP AND SPUR. 



mainly directed against the laws of property, and 

 the actuating motive of whose military movements 

 was " nags." The stealing of horses, with the 

 consequent application of Lynch law, was all that 

 the native male population had to keep them 

 out of mischief, for weeks and weeks together. 

 There was just enough of this sort of armed 

 lawlessness to furnish us with a semblance of 

 duty ; not enough seriously to interrupt our more 

 regular avocations. 



Lebanon is on the high table-land of the 

 Ozarks, in the heart of a country flowing with 

 prairie-hens and wild turkeys, and bountifully 

 productive of the more humdrum necessaries 

 of life. Thanks to the fleeing of Rebel fam- 

 ilies, we found comfortable quarters without too 

 severely oppressing those who had remained. 

 What with moving the court-house away from 

 the public square, leaving the space free for a 

 parade, and substituting a garrison flag-staff for 

 the town pump, we kept our men from rust- 

 ing; and when, after a time, we had established 

 a comfortable post-hospital and a commodious 



