at evening, accounting for three of the floating sausages; and as we were awaiting the finish of the last sausage, and speculating on how long it

lip. He was chewing tobacco as if his life depended on the quantity of juice he could extract from each mouthful, and dried tricklings of the liquid ornamented his chin. As he came toward us his face was turned upward, taking in the scrimmage in the sky. "What's them bloody things?" he asked, indicating

d gobbled the last remaining sausage, but our indelible friend paid no atten

as against the rules to chew tobacco when parading. The Sergeant-Major eyed him curiously and then stepping to his side whispered something; we knew he was explaining to him that he was infringing orders, but

ily sucking his indelible pencil in the corner of his mouth, and, in the light of the morning sun, there was nothing about his mug that was any more prepossessing than appeared in the twilight of the previous night

agons and take off all that mud; it's filthy"; this was absolutely unnecessary and the fellows swore vehemently under their breath; to the drivers,-"Clean up that 'ere 'arness and get that mud hoff it"; he also compelled us to burnish the steel and made t

he resolutions to "get even." This feeling was intensified by his order to gather up some scantlings of hard wood and bring them to his quarters; he was a

s-which was necessary before we could appease our always ravenous appetites-so that he could garner for himself an edible that was longed for and looked for by every man who could get it, i.e., the ham bone, because there were always more or less pickings on it and he was a lu

d examining and prying into their contents. One time his curiosity came nearly getting him a quick passage West. He was examining a bomb and, taking out the pin, was holding it in his hand, looking at it for a b

cer, while respectful, wer

you do t

e they h

ou take th

is made to

ant to kil

uld have been m

out the

no busin

er in the cl

ay with a pitchfork on his shoulder, and a big dog came rushing out at him, and he jam

you do t

our dog run

u hit him with

come at me with

as they were strange. This member of our gang derived his alias from his warm adherence to the navy as against the army. Never was there an argument started about the navy that it did not have a burning advocate in Steven

surname was really James and it

plot and give it an artistic finish, it was necessary to have a ham bone, and Gunboat volunteered to get it. "I'm on picket tonight," he said, "and I'll go to the cookhouse when the cook is asleep and fix it." He did so; when the cook was dreami

ompletely over the hole. Now for the artistic touch. We took the ham bone, fastened it with wire to the end of a stick that we nailed across the top of the shack, with the end protruding well out to the side, and on the end of the ham bone we hung a placard, so that all could see, r

f the conspirators carrying wood that he wanted; it was the first time they expe

onsense is this? Hi'll make someone pay for this!" The rest of us were loitering in the immediate vicinity, listening with sheer chucklings to his burning vows, and it was all we could do to stifle our laughter. Then Hamb

rs! You, Grant, w

ow; how sho

you do

? Don't try any of that on me or I'll

in his efforts to find out the guilt

olve he would never sleep in that shack that night at least. We took hold all together and lifted it up, and on the way over

t Gunboat Stevens was in the clink at the time for having called him "Hambone." They occupied the same room, his bed immediately opposite the Fi

te the diabolism of the revenge, Gunboat, instead of throwing his shirt on the floor as he usually did, watched his opportunity and when he

id not fail to recognize the symptoms at once; every moment he got a chance he was scratching himself; and as soon as he had the opportunity he made for the nearest tree and, rubbing h

hat carried the supplies for the men there, and by chance there was among the rations this time a jar of rum. Accompanying Hambone were Snow and Reynolds of our section, they sitting in the back end of the wagon. They had barely started when Snow discovered the rum jar, and he and Reynolds at once got their wits working as to how they could get away with it. When about

road, he took the railroad track, beating the wagon by some minutes and hiding his jar of joy in my gun pit, immediately got back and was standing beside the wagon when it arrived. Hambone se

the wagon lurched that time he thought the shell was coming. There was nothing for it but to report his loss, and the only excuse he could give was that the rum had probably rolled off when they trotted at a coming shell, and what the officer didn't say to H

in a couple of hours without it, the poor devil thought he was going to be licked, such was the anger of the men at missing their rum rations

r the fact. It is an unwritten law among the men that the only cri

luid were Dick Snow, Reynolds and myself, and in the midst of our convivia

navy and our loved ones at home, we retired in

any mistakes in getting the ranges on the sights, that the Major performed the coup d'état for which we were all anxiously waiting by transmitti