my dinner, with nuts and fruit for dessert. We got back to
Chester about sundown, having had a most interesting and delightful
time.

There was another little incident that happened while we were at
Chester, which I have always remembered with pleasure. Between
companies D and G of our regiment was a strong bond of friendship. Many
of the boys of the two companies had lived in the same neighborhood at
home, and were acquainted with each other before enlisting. The first
sergeant of G was Pressley T. Rice, a grown man, and some five or six
years my senior. He came to me one day soon after our arrival at
Chester, and in his peculiar nasal tone said: "Stillwell, some of my
boys think that when we are soldiering here in 'God's Country,' they
ought to have soft bread to eat. If 'D' feels the same, let's go down
to the mill, and buy a barrel of flour for each company, and give the
boys a rest on hardtack." I heartily assented, but asked what should we
do about paying for it, as the boys were now pretty generally strapped.
Press responded that we'd get the flour "on tick," and settle for it at
our next pay day. To my inquiry if we should take Company B in on the
deal (the other company with us at Chester), Press dryly responded that
B could root for themselves; that this was a "cahootnership" of D and G
only. Without further ceremony we went to the mill, which was a
fair-sized concern, and situated, as I now remember, in the lower part
of the town, and near the river bank. We found one of the proprietors,
and Press made known to him our business, in words substantially the
same as he had used in broaching the matter to me, with some little
additional explanation. He told the miller that the only bread we had
was hardtack, that the boys accepted that cheerfully when we were down
South, but that here in "God's Country," in our home State of Illinois,
they thought they were entitled to "soft bread," so we had come to him
to buy two barrels of flour; that the boys had not the money now to pay
for it, but at our next pay day they would, and we would see to it that
the money should be sent him. While thus talking, the miller looked at
us with "narrowed eyes," and, as it seemed to me, didn't feel a bit
delighted with the proposition. But maybe he thought that if he didn't
sell us the flour, we might take it anyhow, so, making a virtue of
necessity, he said he would let us have it, the price of the two
barrels being, as I now remember