er
of the day after guard mount, to march his guard under command of the
Sergeant, to Deep Gully, in columns of fours. This Irish Lieutenant, being
officer of the day one time, after the inspection of the guard was
completed and the Adjutant had turned them over to him with the usual
instructions, rode out in front and gave his orders thus: "Attention
guard, draw sabre! carry, sabre! be twos or be fours, whichever yees like.
Deep Gully, to the front! Away wid yees."

While at Plymouth, the two Captains and four Lieutenants, of our two
Cavalry companies, formed a mess, each officer contributing his share
towards the expenses. After a while, however, one of the Captains offered
to run the mess, for so much a head per week, agreeing to give us good
board. Well, for a week or two, every thing went smoothly and all seemed
satisfied with the fare. One day we had chicken for dinner, made up into a
sort of soup, or more properly speaking, gruel. This, by breaking some
hardtack into it, though rather thin, was rendered quite palatable by
judicious seasoning, and there being plenty left it was warmed up for
dinner again. The third day as we sat down to dinner, we found another
dish of this gruel on our plates, somewhat diluted, and looking rather
feeble.

When this Irish Lieutenant sat down to dinner he took a look at the soup,
and recognizing in it some infinitesimal portions of the old friend of the
two previous days, shoved back his plate and with flushed face ejaculated:
"Be jabers I like soup; I'm fond of soup, I like soup for forty or fifty
meals, but by jabers as a gineral diet I don't think much of it."

We had good quarters in Plymouth. Our quarters were in a two-story white
house, built as most of the houses in the South are, with a wide hall
running through the centre and instead of a cellar, the house was set upon
posts, so as to give free access to the air underneath. Our Irish
Lieutenant occupied one large room up stairs, and I occupied one just
across the hall from him. One Sunday morning I heard a noise in his room,
and stepping across the hall, opened his door, and at first thought by his
language that he was engaged in his Sunday morning devotions, as he was a
strict Catholic. When I opened the door and took a look at him, I was
startled at the sight which met my gaze. He was standing in the middle of
the room, with a new white flannel shirt about half on, his head
protruding, and his face of apoplectic hue, h