n
the march, an old musket-barrel, placed there by my order, marking
his grave by the wayside. It was not granted to him, poor fellow!
to fight a battle for his country.

I took with me to Florida some law-books--Blackstone, Kent, and a
few others: so few, indeed, that I learned them nearly all by heart;
then, for want of anything better, I read over the entire code of
the State of Florida. Several times in after years I found it
necessary, in order to save time, to repeat to great lawyers the
exact words of the Constitution of the United States; but their
habit was much the better. It is seldom wise to burden the memory
with those things which you have only to open a book to find out.
I recollect well that answer once made by William M. Evarts, then
attorney-general of the United States, to my inquiry whether he
would give me, offhand, the law on a certain point, to save the
time requisite for a formal application and answer in writing. He
said if it was a question of statute law he would have to examine
the books, but if only a question of common law he could make that
as well as anybody. But I had nothing better to do for a time in
Florida, and when I got out I did not find my memory half so much
overloaded with law as my blood was with malarial poison. Luckily,
I got rid of the poison after a while, but held on to the law, and
I never found it did me any harm. In fact, I would advise all
young officers to acquire as much of it as they can.

AN EXTEMPORZIED "MAP AND ITINERARY"

In the winter of 1853-4 there was an armed truce between the United
States of America and the Seminole nation. A new policy was soon
inaugurated, which had for its object to establish a complete line
of posts across the State from Jupiter to Lake Okeechobee, and
thence westward to the gulf, so as more securely to confine the
Seminoles within the Everglade region, although, so far as I know,
nobody then wanted the use of that more northern part of this vast
territory. The first step was to reopen the old military road from
the mouth of Indian River across to the Kissimmee River, and thence
to Tampa. Being the second lieutenant of the single company, I
was given the privilege of doing that work, and nine men and one
wagon were assigned me for that purpose. I spent the larger part
of my time, going and coming, in hunting on either the right or
left of the road, thereby obtaining all the deer