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138
THE ADVENTURES OF

dose of tartar-emetic, the usual remedy in the army for all disorders, even sore eyes, though he could not have given me a better one for my then present malady. He gave me ample directions how to proceed, a part of which was, to take one half or two thirds of the potion, and wait a given time, and if it did not operate, then to swallow the remainder; it did not work till I had the whole in my crop, nor then neither. I waited sometime for it, but growing impatient, I wandered off into the fields and bushes to see what effect exercise would have; I had not strolled a half or three fourths of a mile from camp, when it took full hold of my gizzard; I then sat down upon a log, or stone, or something else, and discharged the hard junks of liver like grapeshot from a fieldpiece. I had no water or any other thing to ease my retchings. O, I thought I must die in good earnest. The liver still kept coming, and I looked at every heave for my own liver to come next, but that happened to be too well fastened to part from its moorings. Perhaps the reader will think this a trifling matter, happening in the ordinary course of things, but I think it a "suffering," and not a small one neither, "of a revolutionary soldier."

After the British had retreated to New-York, our army marched for West point. We passed through the Highlands, by the Clove, a remarkable chasm in the mountains, and came out on the bank of the Hudson river, at a place called Buttermilk-falls, where a small stream falls into the river over a high craggy bank, forming a pretty cascade. We halted here, it was in the morning, and I well remember our Colonel's orders on the occasion, "men," said he, "you have one hour allowed you to refresh yourselves!" Had we been herbaceous animals, we might have refreshed ourselves on browse, for there was no deficiency of that, but as to victuals fit for human beings, I question if there was five pounds weight in the whole regiment; I had none, nor had I had any for twenty-four hours; we were, at this time, ruminating animals, but our ruminating was mentally, not by the teeth. Had the falls been real buttermilk, the Colonel's order might have been given with some propriety, but as it was not so, we were forced to be patient, for we did not expect to be fed by a miracle.

We passed on to West point; the Connecticut forces