WE were all seated before the study fire. Two opulent candles burned on the mantel-piece, and the solar glowed behind us on the table. The cards were untouched, and the wine stood neglected in the half-drained glasses. Only the light clouds of cigar-smoke were moved with gaiety, and they seemed half melancholy as they streamed up in spiral lines, and dipped again in broad thin waves toward the fire, and then, half hesitating, shot up the chimney-throat together.

On the left the Doctor and the Parson were equal monarchs of the great sofa. The Lieutenant, with his gold-headed cane, mused in the rocking-chair to the right. Wrapped in flannels, a skeleton in the easychair sat shivering, directly in front of the red fire, a mockery of the 'Squire's former self; yet he held in his thin fingers a genuine Trabuno, now and then raising it to his lips, as if in token of the love he bore it, even on the brink of the grave.

'I think you will die easily,' answered the Doctor. 'GOD grant you may!' said the Parson.

I hope so,' faintly sighed the 'Squire.

What is the use of dying at all? ejaculated the Lieutenant, shrugging his shoulders, and showing his firm, white teeth, with a comical, yet thoughtful smile.

We all smiled, and then the smile grew to a hearty laugh at the suddenness of his grim humor, for he had scarcely spoken before.

'Why trifle with the decrees of PROVIDENCE?' said the Parson, recovering himself.

'Trifle? I am not trifling,' answered the Lietenant, gravely. 'You clergymen send as many people prematurely into 'kingdom come' as

the very doctors themselves. They help on the work, and you finish it. Between you both, scarce a gray scalp in a thousand adorns the trophy-belt of the old scare-crow Thanatos. Disease comes, and then drugs; and while the body is bathed in lassitude, you come and enervate the soul, bidding a man yield himself quietly to the 'Decrees of PROVIDENCE,' and make him think the battle lost, and that nothing is left but to yield at discretion. That's not the way armies are saved in peril. If you counselled so on the field, you would be tied hand and foot, and swung over your horse, under guard, to be shot with the next rising sun. I counsel Jack to fight every inch in his retreat; and if at last he is cut down, let him die handsomely stuck in the breast, and not run through the back! If, however, his heart is a milk-pot, I don't care how he dies, or when.'

'I only wish, instead of poor Jack, I had you for a patient, Lieutenant; if I would n't take the pride out of you, I'm no doctor,' said the Doctor.

'I half wish you were in Jack's place, Lieutenant, and then you would show more Christian humility,' said the Parson.

'Very likely,' answered the Lieutenant; and while one cupped my chest, the other would cup my soul, I suppose; and I should soon find myself in Charon's boat, compounding, in the stern-sheets, a sop for dainty Cerberus. When I feel sick, blessed little will I have to do with either of you, unless you promise to bring prescriptions neither for soul nor body.'

'Would you die like a Pagan?' asked the Parson.

'No; I would die like a man!' answered the Lieutenant, rather tartly.

'You'd die like a dog, I guess,' said the Doctor, ‘if you shut your mouth against physic.'

And your heart against religion,' chimed in the Parson.

'You are worse than a brace of Florida mosquitoes,' said the Lieutenant; but for all that, I'll have my say, and you shall hear it out. If you would show half the energy in keeping people out of the grave that you do in fighting an idea, you would both reach celebrity in a twelve-month; the one for successful practice, and the other for true religion; common-sense being at the bottom in both cases. Energy is the best doctor and the best priest. It will preach, and practise too, better than either of you. And speaking of Florida mosquitoes' touches the point.

When I was in the Everglades,' I led out a picked scouting-party some two miles from camp, and not finding any trace of Indians, or of the three men and blood-hound we had lost the day before, was quietly on my return, when all at once, as we were passing single file through a hammock of sycamores, some of my men dropped before me, as if struck by lightning; while the crack of half-a-dozen rifles told the reason why, although, except this, neither eye nor ear could detect the enemy. Involuntarily I gave the word to halt; but knowing that with my reduced force it would be worse than folly to turn at bay against a hidden foe, I ordered quick march,' leaving the poor fellows struggling in the death-agony; and although it was not a run, yet I did a

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piece of the most lofty walking after those six men that I ever did in my life, before or since

Speaking of mosquitoes,' interrupted the Doctor, quietly wiping his gold spectacles, without looking up.

The 'Squire smiled, and smothered a cough in his handkerchief, and the Parson actually tittered; but the Lieutenant went on.

'We had gone some two hundred, or two hundred and fifty yards, when I heard a heavy breathing behind me, and as I cocked my short double rifle, and wheeled around, who should I find, within ten yards of me, on the full run, but one of the men we had left writhing in the hammock. He carried his musket in his right hand, while the other arm dangled from his side like a wet rope, the blood fairly spirting down the sleeve-wrist. He fell just before he reached us, exhausted with fatigue and pain and loss of blood.

'I can see that man now man in the most masculine and heroic sense his dark cheek pale, his lips bloodless and compressed, and his heavy brow pressing down on his closed eyes. No groan escaped him. Only the measured and almost convulsive heaving of his full chest betokened life. I felt a new thrill. Dead or alive, that noble fellow should be carried into camp, or I would sacrifice my own life, and the lives of my men! Such is the caprice of human feeling. Twenty minutes before, I had left him and his companions without a thought, except of saving the lives of the unwounded: and now for one, nearer dead than ever, all care for safety was drowned, and I felt nothing but compassion and the spirit of deadly revenge.

Scattering my little force, to skulk behind the trees and be ready for the red rascals in their own style, I dragged the poor fellow behind a wild orange, to staunch his wounds; and ripping up his coat and shirtsleeve with my dirk, was surprised to find that his arm was not broken. A rifle-ball had passed through the muscles just above the elbow, and severed a large vein. A twist or two of my handkerchief stopped the blood there, and I set about finding what the matter was elsewhere; for that wound could not have swelled his arm so frightfully, and made him grate his teeth as he did from the moment I touched it. I gave him a swallow of brandy, not daring to let him drink freely, for those green solitudes were like an oven that day absolutely stifling. Ripping down his coat and shirt together, I laid his shoulder bare, and just behind the collar-bone found a wad of silk protruding, which he had stuffed into a bullet-hole. The blood was effectually staunched, but the whole shoulder was swelled and livid.

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This is not the first time you have been shot in the neck?' said I. No, Sir,' said he; 'but do just dig that 'strawberry' out of my back, for it burns like a live coal.'

Out of your back,' said I; 'why that bullet is safe in your lungs, long ago.'

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I feel it in my back, Lieutenant, and if your tooth-pick' is sharp, I want the d-d thing out.'

the

At it I went. The direction which the stopple indicated tallied with poor fellow's notion, and in a few seconds I came to the conclusion that the ball, if not in his lungs, must be lodged under the shoulder

blade. That part was more horribly discolored than the rest; and knowing that any thing was preferable to the agony he then suffered, I made a lunge, and happily struck the ball, on the under edge of the bone, and pulled it out with my fore-finger. I waited till the blood assumed the true color, and ramming the wound tight with lint, bathed the whole shoulder some time with brandy, fastened his coat and shirt over it, as best I could, and told him to sit up. And he did sit up, and thanked me into the bargain.

"Now that you are able,' said I, 'just tell me how you got off safe from the red-skins, for I thought you had all got your death-warrants signed, sealed and delivered?'

"I thought I was dead!' said he, 'when you marched off, and the other men, and no mistake. I felt you turn me over, and heard you say: 'Dead as the devil!' but I could n't stir, and gave myself up for a dead man. In about a minute, and while I could still hear the hollow tramping of your feet in the distance, my eyes came open of themselves, and I began to think I was not quite dead after all. So I tried to halloo, but my tongue would n't go off; and then I tried to get up, but I was on my left side, and had to roll over, and then, after a little coaxing, managed to gain my legs. Picking up my piece, and cocking it with my foot, I stirred the bodies of my comrades, and finding them wholly dead, 'put' after you as fast as my two legs could go, and had got off some fifty or sixty rods, when I heard a 'whoop,' and felt a bullet strike my left arm. Half way here I stumbled and fell, and then began to pray, for I imagined my scalp would be at the belt of some young 'brave' in less than no time. But while I was praying, I kind o' thought that God would n't help me if I didn't help myself; so I stopped, tore off a strip of my handkerchief with my teeth, and stuffed it into my shoulder. I grew faint, and the blood kept spouting up over my collar; so I out with my ramrod, and with the small end rammed away at the piece of silk till I rammed it home, and then started again 'full chisel.' Here I am, safe and sound, after a fashion; and when I get rested, I am going to pray again.'

Praying won't save you, I am afraid,' said I. 'A man can't stand it long here in this hot swamp, with his shoulder half mortified, to begin with; and we've got a good mile yet to get into camp.' "I can stand a good deal yet,' said he.

"Very well,' said I. Ordering the men from their skulk, they broke a litter of boughs, and we were soon on our march; the litter, borne by four stout shoulders, in the van, the other two men in the centre, and the Lieutenant bringing up the rear. The fellow fainted once, after a hard jolt, and I gave him a little more brandy. ''I'm afraid you will die,' said I.

poor

"Die?' said he, through his teeth; die? I'll be d- -d if I do!' No doubt of that,' said I; 'but had n't you better 'get rested' pretty soon, and pray, as you said you would?'

Beg your pardon, Lieutenant; I am a hard case, that's a fact; but I'll bet a month's pay, and liquor rations to boot, that I shall be just as well off in 'kingdom come' as if I had all my life served God through my nose!'