RUBY. 63 



— stolen or to be stolen, — and would have thus 

 tended to foster the prevailing vice of the region. 



At last we settled down in a pleasant camp at 

 Thomasville, — a good twelve miles away from 

 Davidson, — and were at rest ; it was only those 

 near him who suffered from his fitful caprices, 

 and he was now encamped with the infantry. 



Pleasant as we found it with our little duty 

 and much sport, I can never look back to Thom- 

 asville without sorrow. To say that I had ac- 

 quired a tenderness for Ruby would not be 

 strictly just; but I felt for him all the respect 

 and admiration and fondness that is possible short 

 of love. Vix had been my heroine, and my only 

 one ; but Ruby was my hero, and I depended on 

 him for my duty and my pleasure more than I 

 knew. With his full measure of intelligence he 

 had learned exactly his role, and he was always 

 eager, whenever occasion offered, to show the world 

 what a remarkably fine horse I had, — being him- 

 self conscious, not only of his unusual virtues, 

 but, no less, of the praise they elicited. 



One sunny Southern day, toward the end of 



