flections was suddenly broken by the entrance of Briggs, the other gentlemen following him.

Ben," said he, addressing me in a husky voice, "you might have known me well enough to be sure that I

"and yet, you

You know the they're things to be

did n't mean to call you a coward; and yet" - his voice trembled so he could scarcely speak, struck me, struck me in the face. way we look upon those insults, atoned for; and if you were not who you are, and we what we've been to each other, I'd call you out to-morrow. But this is a time which forbids men to throw away their blood on private quarrels; so I challenge you another way, — I challenge you to go with me into the fight for our country. There is a meeting at eight o'clock to-night at Ralston and Crosby's warehouse, of young men who wish to organize a volunteer regiment for immediate service under Colonel Crosby. I shall be there to enroll myself. Will you accept?'

دو

I looked into his face for a moment, and then answered, "I will."

I kept my word, and left the warehouse at nine that evening a member of the Crosby regiment. From that place, I rode at once to the residence of Mr. Tucker. I stayed longer there than I had at the warehouse, and on coming away was member of still another organization, an organization of two. A fortnight afterward, Briggs and I were on our way to Washington.

Again my autobiography makes a leap. The regiment had several times seen active service. Briggs and I had risen to the captaincies of our several companies. On the 11th day of December, 1862, we had crossed the

Rappahannock, and now, where this narrative resumes its thread, were fighting our way under a murderous fire from every cover, from street to street, through Fredericksburg.

As I was engaged in posting advanced skirmishers along the line on which brave Arthur Fuller had just fallen but forty rods further to the eastward, a body of one hundred Rebels rose with yells from behind a low board-fence across the way, and poured a volley into our little squad. We looked about in vain for support. It was a necessity bitter as death; but we were compelled to fall back to the cover of an old stable on the next street. Slowly and in good order, firing steadily as we retired, we got within a pistol-shot of shelter, and, looking back, saw Briggs's company coming at the double-quick up a lane on the right to reinforce us, when I felt a sudden shiver of pain, as if a sharp icicle had run into my thigh; my feet went from under me; my eyes grew misty; and then all was darkness.

When I next came to myself, it was late twilight. I was lying alone, in maddening thirst and agony, - the air about me stifling with smoke, and still singing with bullets. Two detachments of the opposing forces were contending for the space on which I lay; and, as the balls whistled over me, I momently expected the final quietus to my pain. In an interval between the volleys on our side, I saw a man leave the ranks, and come crawling on his hands and knees toward me. Little by little he approached the place where I lay, without attracting the aim of the opposite combatants. It was too dark to distinguish his uniform; but I supposed him

some reckless rebel, coming to rob me of my watch and side-arms; and, having heard of the practice, occasionally indulged in by our foes, of putting wounded men beyond the future trouble of claiming such little trinkets, feigned death, with eyes tight-shut and breath close-held. But he bent over me only an instant; then lifted me upon his back, with my face over his shoulder and my arms hanging down, and began returning with me, on his hands and knees, as he had come. When he was about half-way home to his comrades, the enemy evidently caught sight of him; for a shout ran along their front, and a dozen shots followed, unpleasantly close to my ears. My carrier lay down for a moment, slid me off his back, wound one arm around my waist, and, covering me with his own body, crept on his knees and the remaining hand until he had dragged me within his own lines. Just as he got in, the pain of my wounded leg reached such a pitch, through the irritation of movement, that I heard only the burst of cheers with which his friends received him, and the rattle of the volley which his return left them free to fire, then once more became dead to all the world.

When I again awoke, I found myself lying on a bed of army-blankets, with a pillow of the same material rolled up under my head; and two men stood near me, talking in a repressed voice, under the shadow of a high stone-wall.

"I'm afraid he can't possibly last through the night," said one of them; "he has lost so much blood that there's nothing left to rally. He may revive again for a moment, but hardly."

"Well, doctor,” answered the other, in a voice of deep sadness, "don't let me keep you any longer; I'll stay and watch with him till the stretcher comes."

It was my old schoolmate who spoke. I tried to call on him; but, in my intense weakness, my tongue failed

me.

He brought a lantern from the shadow of the wall, and, tucking the blankets tenderly about my feet, threw the light upon his lap, and took out of his pocket a little bundle tied up in his handkerchief. When he undid the knots, I recognized in their enclosure the precious little remembrances which I had carried next my breast and taken into every fight with me since the war began. One by one he held them in the light of the lantern, and soliloquized over them bitterly.

"She gave me a home; she stood up for me when I had n't a defender in the world; she did a mother's best for me when mine could n't help me. That's her dear face, with the eyes looking just as if she expected Ben; and there lies all that will ever get home to her. And I brought him here I, I! O God! why could n't they have shot me too? Why did n't I fall dead on him while I was dragging him out of fire? him back to her, so?

How can I send

'Captain Ben Thirlwall';

"Here are the letters, he'd have been a general if he'd lived. How proud his mother'd have been. How proud she'd have been too. And here's her picture. O, sweet, sweet! how I've loved those eyes ever so long ago - ever since I was a little boy! — and I'd no right — they were his-they always looked dearly at him, and I was a vain, presump

tuous, passionate fool. They were to have been married the first time he got furlough. Lovely face! all my life far off and darling as heaven, how can I ever look into you any more? Let me be forgiven; let me kiss you once, as if we were children again in the old farmhouse; no one can see it even you can't know: it will do you no wrong; once — the only, the last time, my beloved, widowed sister."

-

He pressed his lips to the photograph; his sorrowful eyes grew wet; and, hearing a measured noise of feet, he thrust the articles back into his pocket, drew his cuff across his face, and stood up with a stern, "Who goes there?

"Men with the stretcher, Captain," answered a corporal, saluting.

My schoolmate raised me tenderly in his arms and laid me on the stretcher. I made one desperate effort, patted his cheek and whispered, "Dear old boy!" then swooned once more with his cry of delight ringing in my ears, and never woke again till the sun was shining brightly into my hospital tent on the northern side of the Rappahannock.

The moans of wounded men, sinking to their final rest, mingled around me with the outcries of those who were fighting their battles over again in the frenzy of delirium. Inflammation had set in, and I was suffering great pain and fever; but my reason was left me, and my first thought was of the friend who had borne my bleeding body and his own broken heart out of last night's hellish hail-storm.

"Briggs!" I cried faintly.