These tormentors elevated dress-parade into the dignity of a military engagement.

I had to stand motionless, with my head a mere nebula of winged atoms, while tears rolled profusely down my face, from mere muscular irritation.

Had I stirred a finger, the whole battalion would have been slapping its cheeks.

Such enemies were, however, a valuable aid to discipline, on the whole, as they abounded in the guard-house, and made that institution an object of unusual abhorrence among the men.
The presence of ladies and the homelike air of everything, made the picket station a very popular resort while we were there.

It was the one agreeable ride from Beaufort, and we often had a dozen people unexpectedly to dinner.