token of respect,) and then to order them again. The Major then addressed the sergeant thus: "Well, sergeant you have got a larger regiment than we had this evening at roll-call, but I should think it would be more agreeable for the men to be asleep in their huts this cold night, than to be standing here on the parade, for I remember that they were very impatient at roll-call on account of the cold." "Yes, sir," said the sergeant, "Solomon says that 'the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep;' and we find that the abundance of poverty will not suffer us to sleep." By this time the Colonel had come to where the Major and serjeant were arguing the case, and the old mode of flattery and promising was resorted to and produced the usual effect; we all once more returned to our huts and fires, and there spent the remainder of the night, muttering over our forlorn condition.
It was now the beginning of February; many of the men had obtained furloughs to go home and visit their friends, before I had left the Light Infantry, and many since; I now made application and obtained one for fifteen days' absence. I prepared for the journey (which was about thirty miles) and started from the camp about nine o'clock in the morning, intending to go the whole distance that day. I had not a mouthful of any thing to eat or to carry with me. I had, it is true, two or three shillings of old continental money, worth about as much as its weight in rags. I, however, sat off for home; the hopes of soon seeing my friends and the expectation of there filling my belly once more, buoyed up my spirits until I had got within about five miles of home;—when coming to a tavern about sunset, I consulted with myself whether I had not better call and get me a glass of spirits, as I did not possess wherewith to procure me a meal of victuals, concluding that I should soon be where I could get that gratis; I accordingly did call and drank a glass of spirits and water, and immediately pursued my journey. I soon came to where I was obliged to leave the high road and take to one that struck across the country and a ferry. By the time I had got to this road I had become so faint that I thought I could not reach the nearest house, which was more than a mile distant. I was acquainted with this road, but the main
