forest.

After riding for an hour or so, alone in the woods, thinking up a good
lie to tell about where I had been, and what I had been doing, I heard
horses neighing, and presently I came upon my regiment, just starting
out to hunt me up. The colonel looked at me and said, "Kill the fat
prodigal, the calf has got back."

CHAPTER III.

I Describe a Deadly Encounter--Am Congratulated as a Warrior
With a Big "W"--The Chaplain Gives Good Advice--I Attend
Surgeon's Call--Castor Oil out of a Dirty Bottle--Back to
the Chaplain's Tent--I am Wounded in the Canteen.

The last chapter of this history left me facing my regiment, which
had started out to hunt me up, after my terrible fight with that
Confederate. The colonel rode up to me and shook me by the hand,
and congratulated me, and the major and adjutant said they had never
expected to see me alive, and the soldiers looked at me as one returned
from the grave, and from what I could gather by the looks of the boys,
I was something of a hero, even before I had told my story. The colonel
asked me what had become of all the baggage I had on my saddle when I
went away, and I told him that I had thrown ballast over-board all over
the Southern Confederacy, when I was charging the enemy, because I found
my horse drew too much water for a long run. He said something about my
being a Horse-Marine, and sent me back to my company, telling me that
when we got into camp that night he would send for me and I could tell
the story of my capture and escape. I rode back into my company, and you
never saw such a change of sentiment towards a raw recruit, as there
was towards me, and they asked me questions about my first fight. The
corporal who had placed me on picket, and stampeded at the first fire,
was unusually gracious to me, and said when he saw a hundred and fifty
rebels come charging down the road, yelling and firing, he knew it was
no place for his small command, so he lit out. He said he supposed of
course I was shot all to pieces. I didn't tell him that it was me that
did all the yelling, and that there was only one rebel, and that he was
perfectly harmless, but I told him that he miscalculated the number of
the enemy, as there were, all told, at least five hundred, and that I
had killed fourteen that I knew of, besides a number had been taken away
in ambulances, wounded. The boys opened their eyes, and nothing was too
good for me during that march. We w