making his little explanation with a
courteous wave of the hand, which dismissed, as between himself and the
guest of Mistress Thorne, all question as to the army which was
newer--"these records, sir, are full of stories of the most harassing
campaigns, made up and down this peninsula by our soldiers, in
pursuit--vain pursuit--of a slippery, creeping, red-skinned, damnable
foe. Canebrake, swamp, hammock; hammock, swamp, canebrake; ague,
sunstroke, everglade; fever, scalping, ambuscade; and
massacre--massacre--massacre!--such, sir, are the terms that succeed
each other endlessly on those old pages; words that represent, I venture
to say, more bravery, more heroic and unrequited endurance, than formed
part of many a campaign that shines out to-day brilliantly on history's
lying scroll. Yet who knows anything of them? I ask you, who?" The
Doctor's fine voice was finer still in indignation.

"As it happens, by a chance, I do," answered Winthrop. "A cousin of my
father's was in some of those campaigns. I well remember the profound
impression which the Indian names in his letters used to make upon me
when a boy--the Withlacoochee, the Caloosahatchee, the Suwannee, the
Ocklawaha; they seemed to me to represent all that was tropical and wild
and far, far away."

"They represented days of wading up to one's waist in stiff marsh-grass
and water, sir. They represented rattlesnakes, moccasins, and adders,
sir. They represented every plague of creation, from the mosquito down
to the alligator, that great pig of the Florida waters. They represented
long, fruitless tramps over the burning barrens, with the strong
probability of being shot down at the last by a cowardly foe, skulking
behind a tree," declaimed the Doctor, still indignant. "But this cousin
of yours--would you do me the favor of his name?"

"Carey--Richard Carey."

"Ah! Major Carey, without doubt," said the little gentleman, softening
at once into interest. "Allow me--was he sometimes called Dizzy Dick?"

"I am sorry to say that I have heard that name applied to him," answered
Winthrop, smiling.

"Sir, you need not be," responded the other man, with warmth; "Dizzy
Dick was one of the finest and bravest gentlemen of the old army. My
elder brother Singleton--Captain Singleton Kirby--was of his regiment,
and knew and loved him well. I am proud to take a relative of his by the
hand--proud!" So saying, the Doctor offered his own again, and the two
men went gravely throu