. The recollections of a drummer-boy . d camping by night is suddenly gone, and thatthere is, after all, no place like home. For one, I was fully consciousof this as I lay there in the tent, awaiting the sergeants return. Thesounds which came to my ears from the woods, all around me, — ofstrong mens voices, some shouting and some conversing in low tones;the noise of axes and of falling trees; the busy, bee-like hum, losingitself amongst the trees and in the far distance; the bright glare ofthe many fires, and the dancing lights and shadows which seemed topeople the forest with ghostlike forms,
. The recollections of a drummer-boy . d camping by night is suddenly gone, and thatthere is, after all, no place like home. For one, I was fully consciousof this as I lay there in the tent, awaiting the sergeants return. Thesounds which came to my ears from the woods, all around me, — ofstrong mens voices, some shouting and some conversing in low tones;the noise of axes and of falling trees; the busy, bee-like hum, losingitself amongst the trees and in the far distance; the bright glare ofthe many fires, and the dancing lights and shadows which seemed topeople the forest with ghostlike forms, — all this, although at anothertime it would have had a singular charm, now awakened no response inme. One draught of water at the Big Spring at home, which I knewat that very moment was gushing, cool, and clear as crystal, out of thehillside, and on the bottom of which I could in vision see the whitepebbles lying, would have been worth to me all, and more than all,the witchery of our bivouac for the night. And I would have given. GENERAL GKANT CANT HAVE ANY OF THIS WATER. A BIVOUAC FOR THE NIGHT. 187 more for a bed on the hard floor on the landing at the head of thestairs at home — I would not have asked for a bed — than for adozen nights spent in the finest camps in the Army of the the thought of the Big Spring troubled me most. It seemedto me that I could see it with my eyes shut, and that I could hear thewater as it came gushing out of the hillside and flowed to the meadow,plashing and rippling — I tell you, Harry, said the sergeant, suddenly interrupting myvision as he stepped into the circle of light in front of our little tent,and flung down his canteens, there isnt anything like military disci-pline. I went down the road here about a quarter of a mile, and cameout near General Grants headquarters, in a clearing. Down at thefoot of a hill, right in front of his headquarters, is a spring; but itseems the surgeon of some hospital near by had got ther
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1889
