formidable, and could not give a good report of herself; which however they usually succeeded in doing, with us, though sometimes not without considerable parleying.

FACING THE ENEMY'S GUNS.

Another occasion for change in our treadmill existence would come when our brethren, the enemy, would send out one of their "blockade runners,' or clandestine supply boats, unber cover of the guns of Ft. Fisher and their shore batteries, just before nightfall, for the purpose of decoying us within range of their heavier guns, and I presume also to get their vessel started on its way to escape through the picket-line of our fleet, during the darkness of the night.

We would, at such times, draw up within fairly effective range and open fire, which would be promptly responded to by the fort and batteries, the shot and shell flying fast, and sometimes unpleasantly close; our ship in the meantime working her gurs as rapidly as possible, and occasionally shifting her

position, to spoil the enemy's range; which tactics fortunately kept us from harm, but another vessel of our fleet-the "Iron Age," was destroyed, by a shell being fired into her magazine.

The firing would be kept up till darkness set in, when we would retire to our station in the picket-line extending across the channel; there to watch in silence and darkness for the unlucky craft that should have the temerity to cross our path.

In those engagements, I am now happy to say, I do not know that I was ever instrumental in killing, or in assisting to kill a single man, though our vessel gave a good account of herself during my term of service aboard of her; and had every craft of equal capacity in the service of the Government done equally well, the war would have ended two years sooner than it did; as, besides other minor services, we captured one large blockade runner, laden with a valuable cargo of general and military supplies, which we duly turned over to the Government and received certificates for "prize money."

AN UNPLEASANT SITUATION.

We took the crew of the prize aboard our own vessel, and assigned them the forward part of the berth deck; stretching a rope across for a dividing line, and beyond keeping a marine guard or two at this line, and serving them with rations, paying but little attention to our prisoners, till one night one of our marines, a fine young fellow, whose hammock swung next to mine, was taken violently sick, and in spite of all the ship's surgeon could do for him, he grew steadily worse, till finally two other surgeons of the fleet were summoned, and a council of doctors was held.

From the ominous, non-commital demeanor of the doctors, I gained the impression that they had discovered something serious, if not alarming; and when night came, and the men were asleep in their hammocks, I called the colored doctor's nurse (a Georgia plantation man) to me, and asked:

"Ben! what's the matter with this man

what do the doctors say of him?"

With a furtive, sweeping glance at the sleepers in their hammocks, which displayed his white eyeballs in the dim light of the ship's lantern, and with his great chest heaving as if he had been running a race, he came up close to my ear and whispered loud enough to be heard on the gun deck:

"Well, I doan' s'pose I's 'lowed to tell you de truf, Sah! but I specs he's done got de small-pox!"

Great guns! Here had I been lying two nights beside a man having the small-pox!

But how did the poor fellow take the disease? Then it occured to me that one of our prisoners had appeared indisposed, and was lying down nearly all the time he had been aboard, and it was later found that from him the infection came.

Rigid measures were taken the next day to prevent the spread of the disease, by vaccinating all hands; and as we were getting short of coal, we ran up to Beaufort, N. C., our regular coaling station, where our ship was quarantined, after sending our patient,

myself who had been specially exposed, and two others, to Hammond General Hospital, in Beaufort.

THE CHARMS OF SOLITUDE.

Our sick man was sent out to the "pest house," and I was placed in a vacant ward of the hospital, considerably removed from the other inmates, to await developments.

I have seen some dark, and some lonely hours since that time, and the outlook has been dreary and unpromising, but never before or since have I been so brought face to face with the awfulness of desolation, that environed me those nine days of isolation and uncertainty.

The only sounds that came to my ear were the dull, monotonous beat of the sea waves, and the occasional crowing of one solitary rooster, whose existence near a military post could only be accounted for on the theory suggested by his "Hark from the tombs" style of crowing-he had grown so old and thin that the boys had no use for him.