There were, it is true, few topics to discuss; newspapers we never saw; sporting there was none,--but then, the drill, the return of duty, the probable chances of our being ordered for service, were all daily subjects to be talked over, and usually with considerable asperity and bitterness.

One point, however, always served us when hard pushed for a bone of contention; and which, begun by a mere accident at first, gradually increased to a sore and peevish subject, and finally led to the consequences which I have hinted at in the beginning.

This was no less than the respective merits of our mutual servants; each everlastingly indulging in a tirade against the other for awkwardness, incivility, unhandiness,--charges, I am bound to confess, most amply proved on either side.
"'Well, I am sure, O'Reilly, if you can stand that fellow, it's no affair of mine; but such an ungainly savage I never met,' I would say.
"To which he would reply, 'Bad enough he is, certainly; but, by Jove! when I only think of your Hottentot, I feel grateful for what I've got.' "Then ensued a discussion, with attack, rejoinder, charge, and recrimination till we retired for the night, wearied with our exertions, and not a little ashamed of ourselves at bottom for our absurd warmth and excitement.

In the morning the matter would be rigidly avoided by each party until some chance occasion had brought it on the _tapis_, when hostilities would be immediately renewed, and carried on with the same vigor, to end as before.
"In this agreeable state of matters we sat one warm summer evening before the mess-room, under the shade of a canvas awning, discussing, by way of refrigerant, our eighth tumbler of whiskey punch.

We had, as usual, been jarring away about everything under heaven.