es to my heart;
and as they cannot read, I cannot even have the melancholy satisfaction
of supplying them with the excellent anti-tobacco tracts of Mr. Trask.

* * * * *

_December 19._

Last night the water froze in the adjutant's tent, but not in mine.
To-day has been mild and beautiful. The blacks say they do not feel the
cold so much as the white officers do, and perhaps it is so, though
their health evidently suffers more from dampness. On the other hand,
while drilling on very warm days, they have seemed to suffer more from
heat than their officers. But they dearly love fire, and at night will
always have it, if possible, even on the minutest scale,--a mere handful
of splinters, that seems hardly more efficacious than a friction-match.
Probably this is a natural habit for the short-lived coolness of an
out-door country; and then there is something delightful in this rich
pine, which burns like a tar-barrel. It was perhaps encouraged by the
masters, as the only cheap luxury the slaves had at hand.

As one grows more acquainted with the men, their individualities emerge;
and I find first their faces, then their characters, to be as distinct
as those of whites. It is very interesting the desire they show to do
their duty and to improve as soldiers; they evidently think about it,
and see the importance of the thing; they say to me that we white men
cannot stay and be their leaders always, and that they must learn to
depend on themselves, or else relapse into their former condition.

Beside the superb branch of uneatable bitter oranges which decks my
tent-pole, I have to-day hung up a long bough of finger-sponge, which
floated to the riverbank. As winter advances, butterflies gradually
disappear: one species (a _Vanessa_) lingers; three others have vanished
since I came. Mocking-birds are abundant, but rarely sing; once or twice
they have reminded me of the red thrush, but are inferior, as I have
always thought. The colored people all say that it will be much cooler;
but my officers do not think so, perhaps because last winter was so
unusually mild,--with only one frost, they say.

* * * * *

_December 20._

Philoprogenitiveness is an important organ for an officer of colored
troops; and I happen to be well provided with it. It seems to be the
theory of all military usages, in fact, that soldiers are to be treated
like children; and these si