"DEAR MARY: When I look about me, and consider the novelty and
strangeness of my surroundings, I can hardly realize that it is
only a week since I sat in our quiet sitting-room at the farm,
with you and our own dear ones around me. I will try to help your
imagination to a picture of my present home.

"But first let me speak of my journey hither.

"It was tedious enough, traveling all day by rail. Of course,
little liberty was allowed us. Military discipline is rigid, and
must be maintained. Of its necessity we had a convincing proof at
a small station between Hartford and New Haven. One of our
number, who, I accidentally learned, is a Canadian, and had only
been tempted to enlist by the bounty, selected a seat by the door
of the car. I had noticed for some time that he looked nervous
and restless, as if he had something on his mind.

"At one of our stopping-places--a small, obscure station--he
crept out of the door, and, as he thought, unobserved, dodged
behind a shed, thinking, no doubt, that the train would go off
without him. But an officer had his eye upon him, and a minute
afterward he was ignominiously brought back and put under guard.
I am glad to say that his case inspired no sympathy. To enlist,
obtain a bounty, and then attempt to evade the service for which
the bounty was given, is despicable in the extreme. I am glad to
know that no others of our company had the least desire to follow
this man's example.

"We passed through New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, but I
can give you little idea of either of these cities. The time we