tage of
shirks, of helpless, of just ordinary, and of hustlers. There were ten
men in my boat, and they were the cream of Company L. Every man was a
hustler. For two reasons I was included in the ten. First, I was as
good a hustler as ever "threw his feet," and next, I was "Sailor
Jack." I understood boats and boating. The ten of us forgot the
remaining forty men of Company L, and by the time we had missed one
meal we promptly forgot the commissary. We were independent. We went
down the river "on our own," hustling our "chewin's," beating every
boat in the fleet, and, alas that I must say it, sometimes taking
possession of the stores the farmer-folk had collected for the Army.

For a good part of the three hundred miles we were from half a day to
a day or so in advance of the Army. We had managed to get hold of
several American flags. When we approached a small town, or when we
saw a group of farmers gathered on the bank, we ran up our flags,
called ourselves the "advance boat," and demanded to know what
provisions had been collected for the Army. We represented the Army,
of course, and the provisions were turned over to us. But there
wasn't anything small about us. We never took more than we could get
away with. But we did take the cream of everything. For instance, if
some philanthropic farmer had donated several dollars' worth of
tobacco, we took it. So, also, we took butter and sugar, coffee and
canned goods; but when the stores consisted of sacks of beans and
flour, or two or three slaughtered steers, we resolutely refrained and
went our way, leaving orders to turn such provisions over to the
commissary boats whose business was to follow behind us.

My, but the ten of us did live on the fat of the land! For a long time
General Kelly vainly tried to head us off. He sent two rowers, in a
light, round-bottomed boat, to overtake us and put a stop to our
piratical careers. They overtook us all right, but they were two and
we were ten. They were empowered by General Kelly to make us
prisoners, and they told us so. When we expressed disinclination to
become prisoners, they hurried ahead to the next town to invoke the
aid of the authorities. We went ashore immediately and cooked an early
supper; and under the cloak of darkness we ran by the town and its
authorities.

I kept a diary on part of the trip, and as I read it over now I note
one persistently recurring phrase, namely, "Living fine." We did live
fine. We even d