finger, like infants; or by head and tail, like the school boys? Both
ways were impracticable. Our hands imprudently stretched out over the
heads of our frightened horses, might cause them to give a fatal start.
Should we toss up a piece of coin, the night was too dark to enable us
to distinguish which side fell upward. The colonel bethought him of an
expedient, of which I never should have dreamed."

"'Listen to me, captain,' said the colonel, to whom I had communicated
my perplexities. 'I have another way. The terror which our horses feel,
makes them draw every moment a burning breath. The first of us two whose
horse shall neigh,--"

"'Wins!' I exclaimed, hastily."

"'Not so; shall be looser. I know that you are a countryman, and, as
such, you can do whatever you please with your horse. As to myself, who,
but last year, wore a gown of a theological student, I fear your
equestrian prowess. You may be able to make your horse neigh: to hinder
him from doing so, is a very different matter.'"

"We waited in deep and anxious silence until the voice of one of our
horses should break forth. The silence lasted for a minute--for an age!
It was my horse who neighed the first. The colonel gave no external
manifestation of his joy; but, no doubt, he thanked God to the very
bottom of his heart."

"'You will allow me a minute to make my peace with heaven?' I said, with
falling voice."

"'Will five minutes be sufficient?'"