." So that, with every opportunity for being kept on the
alert, there was small prospect of serious danger; and all promised
an easy life, with only enough of care to make it pleasant. The picket
station was therefore always a coveted post among the regiments,
combining some undeniable importance with a kind of relaxation; and as
we were there three months on our first tour of duty, and returned there
several times afterwards, we got well acquainted with it. The whole
region always reminded me of the descriptions of La Vende'e, and I
always expected to meet Henri Larochejaquelein riding in the woods.

How can I ever describe the charm and picturesqueness of that summer
life? Our house possessed four spacious rooms and a _piazza_; around it
were grouped sheds and tents; the camp was a little way off on one side,
the negro-quarters of the plantation on the other; and all was immersed
in a dense mass of waving and murmuring locust-blossoms. The spring days
were always lovely, while the evenings were always conveniently damp; so
that we never shut the windows by day, nor omitted our cheerful fire
by night. Indoors, the main head-quarters seemed like the camp of some
party of young engineers in time of peace, only with a little female
society added, and a good many martial associations thrown in. A large,
low, dilapidated room, with an immense fireplace, and with window-panes
chiefly broken, so that the sashes were still open even when
closed,--such was our home. The walls were scrawled with capital
charcoal sketches by R. of the Fourth New Hampshire, and with a good
map of the island and its wood-paths by C. of the First Massachusetts
Cavalry. The room had the picturesqueness which comes everywhere from
the natural grouping of articles of daily use,--swords, belts, pistols,
rifles, field-glasses, spurs, canteens, gauntlets,--while wreaths of
gray moss above the windows, and a pelican's wing three feet long over
the high mantel-piece, indicated more deliberate decoration. This, and
the whole atmosphere of the place, spoke of the refining presence of
agreeable women; and it was pleasant when they held their little court
in the evening, and pleasant all day, with the different visitors who
were always streaming in and out,--officers and soldiers on various
business; turbaned women from the plantations, coming with complaints or
questionings; fugitives from the main-land to be interrogated; visitors
riding up on horseback, their