companying the trains, as they passed to and from our dépôts, often in the capacity of teamsters.

In some secret corner of their wagons, the monte-bank, the faro-box, and the roulette-cloth, with its gilded figures and emblazoned eagle, the keno-urn, or the wheel of fortune, were snugly stowed away, side by side with the whisky-keg, to be placed in tempting array upon the tail-boards of their wagons on arriving at the first campingground for the night. These men could Accommodate themselves to any change of circumstances, or any ostensible occupations, in order to carry on their game of plucking the poor soldier.

On one occasion, says the Doctor, I was accompanying a train-escort, and we had encamped at the stream of Papa Gallios. There was along with us, a Sergeant K., of the 16th regiment, one of the new levies. The Sergeant had served with the 1st Ohio regiment, and was at the taking of Monterey. He had returned home, and afterwards enlisted in the new regiment, and was now again on his return home, on a sick furlough. Being, as he expressed it, but a passenger, and without a mess, I had invited him to join with me, and share my tent.

As usual, a monte-dealer had opened his bank, and was calling upon the votaries of fortune to sacrifice at her shrine.

The Sergeant observing that, as he had not money enough to take him home he would try his luck at the game. Accordingly, he left me, and wended his way towards the circle, which had gathered around the gambler. I turned into my blankets, and soon forgot all things about me, in pleasant dreams of home.

About midnight the Sergeant returned with his handkerchief filled with gold; I should think, from its weight, he had over a thousand dollars.

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"Here, doctor!" said he, I am in luck to-night; I've almost burst up that fellow's bank!"

"How much have you won ?" I asked carelessly; for, in fact, I was too sleepy to take much interest in his good luck.

"I don't know exactly; but as he had about fifteen hundred dollars in his bank, and the other boys were not betting much, and there is but a precious little of it left, I should think I've about got the fellow's pile! By heav

ens! I'll return and make a finish of him !"

"But sergeant! come back a moment; a word with you before you go.”

"Well! what is it! Talk fast," said he. " He's playing against luck, and, if I don't get back soon, the boys will have used him up. One or two anties more, and I'll not leave a dollar in his bank."

I perceived that the free whisky of the gambler was doing its work on the brain of the sergeant: and knowing that the knave would soon have the advantage of him, and carry the good luck over to the bank, I persuaded him to deposit a portion of his winnings with me, as he would not require a very heavy stake to finish the game, now so near its close.

"By Jove! you're right, old fellow!" said he, "help yourself; but don't be greedy, leave me enough to finish him up genteelly."

He laid the handkerchief again upon my blanket, and, gathering up several handfuls of the heaviest pieces, I slipped them under my bedding. It was too dark for him to observe how frequently my hands returned to the charge; but at last, growing impatient. he snatched up what remained, and returned to the work.

But it seemed that, in his brief absence, the fickle goddess had deserted her friends of the earlier hours of the night, and had now gone over to the dealer. His pile had evidently increased.

"I go an eagle on the corona,'" cried the sergeant, as he threw the gold piece on the pile of papers that picture represented, and watched the run of the cards. The espada won, and the ten dollars were added to the bank.

"Well, then, here's two eagles more on the horse!" But the horse, too, had become unlucky, and carried the gold to the wrong side of the board. Again and again the sergeant sees his gold pieces swallowed up in the all-devouring bank.

A fresh application to the free drink, and he, determined to recover the ground he has lost, now ventures ten eagles on a card. The banker coolly shuffles off his papers, his own lucky card turns up, and he gathers the money to his own pile.

So the game continued till the Ser

geant had lost the last piece I had left in his handkerchief. Again he returned to me, much excited, and demanded the whole of the money I had retained. He was confident he could yet break the bank. I saw it was useless to endeavor to dissuade him from further ventures against the cunning gambler; he was now in for it, and nothing short of the loss of the last cent he possessed would recall him to reason. I, therefore, pretended to hand over to him the whole of what remained of his money, but really reserving more than the half of it.

As the guards were being relieved for the last time in the morning, the Sergeant returned, and, entering the tent, awoke me with the request for the loan of an eagle or so.

..

Hillo! is that you, Sergeant?" "Yes," said he, in a half serious, half comical tone of voice, "what is left of me-can't you lend me a few auties against that cursed monte-dealer?"

"What, my dear fellow! has the luck gone the wrong way at last?"

is

"Yes! yes!-That monte-fellow the very devil for luck. He has cleaned me out completely-not even left me a dime for morning bitters. I am not

alone, however; he has whipped out the crowd. Why would you believe it, that fellow has won over three thousand dollars to-night!"

I consoled the poor fellow with the assurance that I might have told him as much; and showed him the folly of not remaining content with what he had won in the early part of the night.

"But come, now, a truce to preaching, lend me ten dollars?"

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No, Sergeant, you have lost enough already, and I will not loan you a cent. Lie down and get a nap; 'tis almost reveillé time."

"Well, then, here goes for it!" and, stretching himself upon the blankets, he was soon snoring like a high-pressure steamboat.

On our arrival at Camargo, we found the steamboat" Rough and Ready" fired up, and ready to start down the river to Matamoras. My friend, the Sergeant, hastened to the office of the quartermaster, and obtained his transportation papers; and, on his return, came to bid me good-by, with a very lugubrious expression of countenance.

"Doctor," said he, "it's likely I may never see you again; but would it be too great a favor to ask of an old friend

-the loan-of-say-five-dol-lars, or so? It's a long way between here and Ohio, and you know I've not the first red cent for the-extras!"

"Well, Sergeant," said I, "promise me, upon the honor of a soldier, that you will not bet a dollar of it upon monte, or any other game, and I will advance you money enough to take you home like a gentleman, and something handsome left when you get there."

"I'll promise you anything you ask, my friend," said he, grasping my hand; "but I will be grateful for a small amount; five or ten dollars is all I will accept."

"But do I understand you to accede to my terms?"

"Yes, yes! Doctor; I promise, upon the honor of a gentleman, not only not to bet on a card during my voyage home, but never again to indulge in the vicious and ungentlemanly practice-so help me-heaven!"

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Enough said, Sergeant; here, hold out your hands-both of them-so, there!" and I proceeded to count out leisurely, piece after piece, the gold I had pocketed of his winnings, till I had piled upon his outstretched palms over six hundred dollars.

He stood lost in amazement, till I had counted out the last eagle; then, dropping his hands, and scattering a golden shower of doubloons, eagles, and double-eagles upon the ground at our feet, refused to accept a single dollar till I had explained the mystery. When I at last bade him farewell, he was in comfortable possession of one of the best state-rooms of the "Rough and Ready."

I have never since met the Sergeant: but, if this should chance to meet his eye, he will, no doubt, smile to see himself in "print," and pardon a friend of the olden times for the liberty he has taken with him.

her out before he had so far committed himself as to present her with his effigie.

She jilted him most shamefully, and Uncle Savory took his disappointment so seriously to heart, that he became misanthropical, and retired from the world with no other companion than a bottle of Irish whisky and a German tobacco pipe. He remained in a state of seclusion for eight and forty hours, and was for years as broken-hearted a man as love ever subjugated. He resolved to avoid the chances of a second attachment; so gave up housekeeping, took lodgings, dined promiscuously, drank moderately, retired to rest whenever it suited his humor, and exercised the enviable privilege of letting himself in by a latch-key.

There is a little club called the "Ringdoves." It derived its name from the members being all married men, with one exception, and that one was my Uncle Savory. The " Ringdoves" hold their meetings in one of the out-ofthe-way corners of the metropolis, and are famous for nothing but their tendency to good-followship and decided aversion to early hours.

In

Uncle Savory was very popular with this set of roysterers; he was not given to jeer at matrimony, sang a very tolerable song, and never rose from the table until every one else had departed. fact, he might be considered as the thong which bound together those convivial fasces; and whenever the gout held him at home by the toe, the Ringdoves" seemed another set of beings, or, as one of them remarked, "They all seemed at home," which, according to their illustration of that popular phrase, signified that they were insufferably dull.

..

The consequence of this popularity of my Uncle Savory was a world of misrepresentation; and a few weeks since, the malignity to which he was exposed brought him into such a state of despondency that he was actually detected drinking a tumbler of unadulterated filtered water---mark the peculiarity of his disorder-the water was actually filtered!

As I shall not be able to frame an apology for my uncle thus degrading himself, I will merely detail the persecution which induced this pitiable physical and moral prostration.

Women (goddesses that they are!) have a logic peculiarly their own. With

them it is an axiom, "that their own husbands can do no wrong but at the instigation of others."

I have said that the " 'Ringdoves" were married men, and, consequently, received from their respective spouses the benefit of the aforenamed immunity -alloyed, however, by the infliction of those 66 pains and penalties" which wedded ladies know how to administer so admirably.

Reader, you must fancy the return home of Mr. Brown, of the "Ringdoves," and a colloquy something like the following:

"Oh, it is you-nice time to come home, Brown-past one-and the fire

Angry-isn't it past two?"

"It wasn't my fault. There was Jackson, and little What's-his-name that keeps a pony, and Savory."

"Savory!--that man ought to be ashamed of himself; he never goes home. I should like to tell him a little of my mind."

"He's my fri-end-my dear—and puts-less-oil in his-punch-"

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He's a perfect nuisance, and oughtn't to associate with married men. Brown!-Brown! Why, you're snoring!"

During the above, Mrs. Jackson may be also indulging in a soliloquy, and a fancy portrait of her husband's friendUncle Savory.

"Two o'clock! Jackson's with that Savory again. What a brute that fellow must be-how Jackson can degrade himself by making a friend of such a low-red-haired-Ï hate red hair-redfaced-tipsy-I wonder if he's ever

sober-abandoned roué. Jackson never used to go on in this way till he knew Savory-quarter past two-that Savo

ry's a villain. I wonder what he has been-a gambler-a smuggler-(that's Jackson's step! No it isn't)-a pirate -a spy-(there's a cab. No, it has stopp'd next door)-a forger--a pardoned convict. Gracious me! Can anything have happened to Jackson? Has that Savory been playing tricks with him? Has- Oh! there he is. I'll lock up the liquor-bottle, let him in, and tell him what I think of his friend Savory."

These scenes are not altogether imaginary-the phraseology alone partakes of the ideal, but every lady of every member of the Ringdoves" looked upon Uncle Savory as their husband's friend, and abused and misrepresented him accordingly. Poor uncle! little did he think that whilst he listened to the eulogy of first one and then the other of the "Ringdoves" and felt the blood in his heart bubbling with honest pride at their commendations of his salads and punch, his songs and admirable conduct in the chair, that their fairer and better moieties were loading him with "curses not loud but deep." as the primary cause of the consumption of rushlights and connubial absenteeism.

The veil was at length removed from his eyes towards the heel of as pleasant an evening as ever gathered upon the

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orgies of the happy fraternity of the Ringdoves." Jackson twitted Brown with being a nightly auditor to a private lecture on the "conjugal duties;" Brown retaliated upon Briggs, whose laugh was the loudest at the marital penance of his fellow 44 Ringdove;" Briggs revenged himself upon Dobbs, who had been betrayed into an expression of sympathy for his nocturnal snubbings; Dobbs filliped Smith; Smith grilled Jones; Jones roused White; and so on, until each member of the club had con

fessed to keeping "a gray mare," and laughed heartily at his own domestic thraldom. Uncle Savory was paralyzed; for every man had ended his acknowledgment with the same harrowing assertion

"My wife says it's all Savory's fault!" He had fancied himself indifferent to the opinion of the world in general, and of the fairer portion in particular; but now that he heard himself a by-word by men's hearths-a social vampire that was feeding upon the domestic felicity of a dozen hearts, he felt the punch become ice in his bowels, and the fragrant fumes of his beloved weed change to the unsavoriness of an expiring candle.

The last "Ringdove" had departed, and still my uncle sat with an empty jug before him; and it was not until the waiter, surprised at the phenomenon of his abstinence, informed him that it was three o'clock, that he laid down his long-exhausted pipe, and retired to his lonely chambers.

How desolate appeared his condition! He would have given half that he was worth for one of those curtain lectures of which he had heard so much during the past evening; but there was nothing sitting up for him but a little night lamp that