my
exertions. Nothing but the special training my class had taken in
gymnasium during the previous year, for just such an emergency,
pulled me through the long run and long fast following it. It was
only a run of 100 miles but I think we must have stopped to wood
and water at every cotton-wood grove and swamp along the way; and I
remember at one of these periodical stops, going out on the
platform, and falling into an altercation with a little red-headed
doctor, who, whether he had scented my secret or not, with that
divine intuition for discovering the hidden, peculiar to the craft,
had made himself officially offensive to me, and now, wanted to
borrow my revolver to shoot a copper-head that lay coiled up by the
side of the track. Refused in that, he next wanted to examine my
sword, and when under some trifling pretext, I abruptly left him
and going inside the car, sat down as near as possible to a
bluff-looking lieutenant, whose honest face seemed a true
indication of character, his wrath knew no bounds and was quite
outspoken. 'Peace to your injured spirit, oh fiery-headed son of
Esculapius, if you are still in the land of the living! I here
tender you my humble apologies. Doubtless you intended nothing more
than to compare the efficiency of my leaden balls with one of your
own deadly Bolouses or to see how my cleaver compared in sharpness
with one of your own little scalpels.' But at that particular time
I should have been suspicious of my own brother had he desired to
inspect or use my arms.

"It was late Saturday afternoon when, tired and faint, I landed in
the city. Pushing straight to the office of the Adams Express
Company, I told them I had the pay of a regiment to express home
and wanted five or six hundred money order blanks and envelopes. I
shall never forget the look of incredulity with which the clerk
looked at me. I was dirty and ragged, just in from the front, with
no shoulder-straps, for we had been ordered to remove them and
diminish the chances of being picked off by the sharpshooters but
had sword and pistol and an innocent looking haversack hanging at
my side. However, he said not a word, but passed over the papers.

"My next adventure was in a saloon where on calling for a drink of
whiskey, I was informed that they were not allowed to sell to
private