onnoitre, I thought, dripping at every point, like
a convict in the marshes, before I continued a tramp here that might
expose me to a scouting-party at any moment. That hunger, too, which had
not troubled me in the night-hours, came upon me now and urged very
suggestive hints. I had made a cup of my hands more than once, and
slaked my thirst from the streams in my way, Narcissus-fashion; but
nothing solid had passed my lips for seventeen hours. First, logs and
leaves for a cover, then food, then a critical examination of my
position, were my objects, as I hastily settled my plans. The thought of
the intelligent contraband, so beyond ordinary human excellence in the
richness of his heart, who might minister to all my wants, (as without
question many such had done to my distressed brethren flying from
Libby,) and whose homely traits become to us golden virtues in moments
of suffering, crossed my brain as the depression of hunger increased.
Very dim visions of clean and savory cooking haunted me as I took off my
boots and shook the water from them. I could not imagine anything to
equal in value a good steak or a hot hash; nor could I check my feeling
of discontent, a hopeless feeling, at having many a time and oft
partaken of like viands, perhaps, unappreciatively. The slimy dirt of my
uppers soiled my hands, as I endeavored to make myself less
uncomfortable, and I took the shirtsleeve from my neck as the driest
article about me upon which to wipe them, Near by lay the trunk of a
large walnut-tree, water-logged and growing sponge-moss; and small
bushes, like coral reefs in this sea of troubles, were on all sides of
me. I had not accomplished much when I heard distinctly the sound of a
bugle.

It was, I supposed, about half a mile distant; but there was no knowing
how near the wet horsemen whom it signalled might be to my proposed
hiding place; and, accordingly, I got hastily down by the walnut, a good
squirrel-cover, without shelter or head-piece. I lay along that side of
it which was farthest from the road, and durst not move for fear of
capture. The woods were quite thick at that place, and from the hidden
pathway (now become scarce a highway) a body of the enemy might emerge
at any moment. The unwelcome music of their bugle broke the Sabbath
stillness of the morning, and interrupted the harmony of the falling
rain-drops as they pattered through the great cathedral branches
overhead. I spent, I presume, two hours in thi