hour for me to get over my
shivering fit.

Captain Miller was in many respects one of the finest characters I ever
knew, and I liked him more as I knew more of him, but he was the most
apprehensive individual imaginable. He was more afraid of a river than
of the whole Confederate army, and was continually imagining all sorts
of possible contingencies, trying to decide in advance what was to be
done in each case, and losing sight of the fact that we could not
foresee any of the surrounding conditions of a probable contingency, and
hence could not meet the emergency until it and all its phases could be
clearly seen. He bothered me half to death at times by his questions as
to what I would do if such and such a thing occurred, and when I told
him that I could not tell until it happened he would look as serious as
if we were in immediate danger.

I never could make a success of trying to anticipate details, for I
always found that my action turned upon some unforeseen thing, and I
never worried about such things, having found that the proper action for
an emergency always suggested itself to me when I stood face to face
with the necessity for doing something.

As we proceeded on our way we came to a bayou, which we waded, and a
little later we reached one which was too deep to be forded. We seemed
to be in a section cut up by a network of these streams, and we
concluded that by a little extra walking we could probably dodge around
bends in the streams so as to preserve our general course without
recourse to the swimming which Miller so dreaded. We could see no signs
of a curve in this bayou, and it was a question of luck as to whether we
went right or wrong in our first attempt to get around the obstruction.

Rummel was our guide, and we would have followed his lead had he started
off, but he hesitated so long, and did so much guessing, that I started
off to the left, saying that one way was as good as the other when we
had nothing to point out the best course. Of course, Miller now wanted
to go the other way, and we came as near having a row as we ever did in
all our acquaintance. After some sarcasm and heated comments, we started
off, finally, in the direction which I had chosen, and a few minutes'
walking proved that I had by accident chosen correctly, as we saw a
curve ahead of us which subsequently proved to be a bend in the bayou.
Our passage around the curve opened up a good stretch of country ahead
of us, and I