hands full of jasmine and wild roses; and
the sweet sunny air all perfumed with magnolias and the Southern pine.
From the neighboring camp there was a perpetual low hum. Louder voices
and laughter re-echoed, amid the sharp sounds of the axe, from the pine
woods; and sometimes, when the relieved pickets were discharging their
pieces, there came the hollow sound of dropping rifle-shots, as in
skirmishing,--perhaps the most unmistakable and fascinating association
that war bequeaths to the memory of the ear.

Our domestic arrangements were of the oddest description. From the time
when we began housekeeping by taking down the front-door to complete
therewith a little office for the surgeon on the _piazza_, everything
seemed upside down. I slept on a shelf in the corner of the parlor,
bequeathed me by Major F., my jovial predecessor, and, if I waked at any
time, could put my head through the broken window, arouse my orderly,
and ride off to see if I could catch a picket asleep. We used to spell
the word _picquet_, because that was understood to be the correct thing,
in that Department at least; and they used to say at post head-quarters
that as soon as the officer in command of the outposts grew negligent,
and was guilty of a _k_, he was ordered in immediately. Then the
arrangements for ablution were peculiar. We fitted up a bathing-place
in a brook, which somehow got appropriated at once by the company
laundresses; but I had my revenge, for I took to bathing in the family
washtub. After all, however, the kitchen department had the advantage,
for they used my solitary napkin to wipe the mess-table. As for food, we
found it impossible to get chickens, save in the immature shape of eggs;
fresh pork was prohibited by the surgeon, and other fresh meat came
rarely. We could, indeed, hunt for wild turkeys, and even deer, but such
hunting was found only to increase the appetite, without corresponding
supply. Still we had our luxuries,--large, delicious drum-fish, and
alligator steaks,--like a more substantial fried halibut,--which might
have afforded the theme for Charles Lamb's dissertation on Roast Pig,
and by whose aid "for the first time in our lives we tested _crackling_"
The post bakery yielded admirable bread; and for vegetables and fruit we
had very poor sweet potatoes, and (in their season) an unlimited supply
of the largest blackberries. For beverage, we had the vapid milk of that
region, in which, if you let it stand, th