Keel and Saddle

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872. Excerpt: ... THE MAJOR'S STORY. FROM my childhood, my friends, I have been a soldier, and my earliest recollections are of the barrack and the camp; while my youth was accustomed to the field and the bivouac. In fact, I have been that much-maligned personage, a soldier of fortune; which means, in most cases, a soldier of no fortune at all. Once in my life I resolved to relinquish the profession of arms, and to adopt some peaceful calling; but inexorable fate drove me back to the career which I began, as I have said, almost in childhood. After having given my sword to several European powers, and also lent it to the Turk, without finding myself any better off than when I began, I determined to visit the land of promise to all adventurers like myself, and came to this country to seek a home and a family. I had always been a dreamer, and to acquire these blessings was the dearest wish of my heart; while the hope of its realization had been my only solace in many a dreary bivouac, as I lay on the ground covered with my cloak, gazing upward at the stars, with oftentimes many a poor fellow stark and stiff in his gore.around me. The expenses of the voyage had absorbed all the little ready money I possessed; and I landed in New York penniless, having nothing but a stout heart and strong limbs, that had so often stood me in good stead. It was the autumnal season; and I strolled all day through the busy streets of the great metropolis of the Western World, studying the new scenes that met my eye; and, as the shades of evening fell, I stretched myself on a bench in Washington Square to rest. I did not fear observation; for I was utterly unknown. I was pale and careworn after my voyage: and my clothes were by no means new, --" my beaver gone to seed; " my shoes, like those of Juli...