im said that now we had only a bridle and a pair of
spurs, we were more like regularly ordained horse-thieves. He said the
most successful horse-thief he ever knew in Wisconsin never had anything
but a halter as his stock in trade. He would go out with a halter, with
a rope on the end, pick up a horse, put the rope in the horse's mouth,
and ride away, and nobody could catch him. I asked Jim if he didn't feel
humiliated, a loyal soldier, to class himself with horse-thieves. He
said when he enlisted he made up his mind to do nothing but shoot
rebels through the heart or the left lung. It was his idea to be a
sharpshooter, and aim at the button on the left breast of the enemy, but
when he found that lots of the rebels didn't have any buttons on their
coats and that he might shoot all day at a single rebel and not hit him,
and that shooting into them in flocks didn't seem to diminish the enemy
the least bit, he had made up his mind to turn his hand to anything;
and if the rebellion could be put down easier by his stealing horses
at thirteen dollars a month, he would do it if ordered. He said we were
only putting in time, promenading around, and we should get our salary
all the same. And so we wandered on, talking the thing over. When we
came to a plantation we would walk all around it, and examine the woods
and swamps adjacent, because the people of the South had learned that
a horse or a mule was not safe anywhere out of the most impenetrable
swamp. It was dark when Jim and I decided to camp for the night, and we
went into a deserted cotton gin and prepared for a sleep. It was almost
dark, and Jim said he had just seen a chicken, near a cabin, fly up in a
peach tree to roost, and he was going to have the chicken as soon as it
was dark. I laid down on some refuse cotton, and Jim went out after the
chicken. I had fallen asleep when Jim returned, and he had the chicken,
and a skillet, and a couple of canteens of water. I crawled out of my
nest and built a fire, while Jim dressed the chicken, and got the water
to boiling, and the chicken was put in. For three hours we boiled the
chicken, but each hour made it tougher. I told Jim he might be a success
as a horse-thief, but when it come to stealing tender poultry he was a
lamentable failure, but he said it was the only hen on the place, and if
I didn't want to eat it I could retire to my couch and he would set up
with the hen. I was so hungry, and the smell of the boiling hen was s