yielding presently to a grand
burst of the favorite marching song among them all, and one at which
every step instinctively quickened, so light and jubilant its rhythm,--

"All true children gwine in de wilderness,
Gwine in de wilderness, gwine in de wilderness,
True believers gwine in de wilderness,
To take away de sins ob de world,"--

ending in a "Hoigh!" after each verse,--a sort of Irish yell. For all
the songs, but especially for their own wild hymns, they constantly
improvised simple verses, with the same odd mingling,--the little facts
of to-day's march being interwoven with the depths of theological gloom,
and the same jubilant chorus annexed to all; thus,--

"We're gwin to de Ferry,
De bell done ringing;
Gwine to de landing,
De bell done ringing;
Trust, believer
O, de bell done ringing;
Satan's behind me,
De bell done ringing;
'T is a misty morning,
De bell done ringing;
O de road am sandy,
De bell done ringing;
Hell been open,
De bell done ringing";--

and so on indefinitely.

The little drum-corps kept in advance, a jolly crew, their drums slung
on their backs, and the drum-sticks perhaps balanced on their heads.
With them went the officers' servant-boys, more uproarious still, always
ready to lend their shrill treble to any song. At the head of the whole
force there walked, by some self-imposed pre-eminence, a respectable
elderly female, one of the company laundresses, whose vigorous stride we
never could quite overtake, and who had an enormous bundle balanced on
her head, while she waved in her hand, like a sword, a long-handled tin
dipper. Such a picturesque medley of fun, war, and music I believe no
white regiment in the service could have shown; and yet there was no
straggling, and a single tap of the drum would at any moment bring order
out of this seeming chaos. So we marched our seven miles out upon the
smooth and shaded road,--beneath jasmine clusters, and great pine-cones
dropping, and great bunches of misletoe still in bloom among the
branches. Arrived at the station, the scene soon became busy and more
confused; wagons were being unloaded, tents pitched, water brought, wood
cut, fires made, while the "field and staff" could take possession of
the abandoned quarters of their predecessors, and we could look round in
the lovely summer morning to "survey our empire and behold our home."

The only thoroughfare by land between Beaufort a