ft the 2--th. There is a high old time over there. They have got the
dead wood on old Pigey nice."

"In what way?" inquired the crowd.

"You know that long, slim fellow of Co. E, in that Regiment, who is
always lounging about the Hospital, and never on duty."

"What! The fellow that has been going along nearly double, with both
hands over the pit of his stomach, for a week past?"

"The same," resumed Birdy. "He has been going it on diarrhoea lately;
before that he was running on rheumatism. Well, you know he has been
figuring for a discharge ever since he heard the cannonading at the
second Bull Run, but couldn't make it before yesterday."

"How did he make it?" inquired several, earnestly.

"Fished for it," quietly remarked Birdy.

"Come, Birdy, this is too old a crowd for any jokes of yours. Whose
canteen have you been sucking Commissary out of?" broke in one of his
hearers.

"Nary time; I'm honest, fellows. He fished for it, and I'll tell you
how," resumed Birdy, adjusting the rubber blanket upon which he had
seated himself.

"You see old Pigey was riding along the path that winds around the hill
to Corps Head-Quarters, when he spied this fellow, Long Tom, as they
call him, sitting on a stump, and alongside of the big sink, that some
of our mess helped to dig when on police duty last. Tom held in both
hands a long pole, over the sink, with a twine string hanging from
it--for all the world as if he was fishing. On came old Pigey; but Tom
never budged.

"'What are you doing there, sir?' said the General.

"'Fishing,' said Tom, without turning his head.

"'Fishing! h--l and d--n! Must be crazy; no fish there.'

"'I've caught them in smaller streams than this,' drawled out Tom,
turning at the same time his eyes upon the General, with a vacant stare.
'But then I had better bait. The ground about here is too mean for good
red worms. Just look,' and Tom lifted up an old sardine box, half full
of grubs, for the General to look at.

"'Crazy, by G--d, sir,' said the General, turning to his Aid, 'Demented!
Demented! Might be a dangerous man in camp; must be attended to,'
continued the General; striking, as he spoke, vigorous blows across his
saddle-bow, with his gauntlet; Tom all the while waiting for a bite,
with the patience of an old fisherman.

"It was after three in the afternoon, and the General took the bait.

"'Must be attended to. Dangerous man! dangerous man!' said he, adjusting
his spectacles.