Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

132 SCENEs AT THE FOR)D.
ties." A short halt was necessarily made, in order that the
men might cross as comfortably as possible, during which
the companies successfully passed over under a lively crossfire of wit and ridicule, drawn forth by the little accidents
which befell many in the ford. One of the first to scramble
up the opposite bank, was a stout, good-natured son of the
Emerald Isle, who possessed a fill share of all those qualities which have given the Irish a deservedly high reputation
as soldiers in all quarters of the globe; for what land has not
witnessed their constancy and courage? After attempting
to shake off the brown mud that incased his legs, he turned
and shouted to those behind: 1" Ah! my jolly chaps, ye'll
all be Quakers by the time yez get through that swate boghole? ) Then, after another survey of his nether integuments, " upon me sowl, it's as lovely a drab as ever was
dyed! " " Come on, boys," he continued " never fare the
Red Say; sure, and was'nt it the Israelites thimsilves that
made yer pantaloons?" This allusion to the Jew tailors of
Cincinnati-who, it was supposed, had tcAen, ien some of the
companies in their clothing contracts —and the idea that any
such saving virtue as that insinuated, should linger in their
threadbare garments, convulsed all with laughter. A short
man, whose uniform was exceedingly ragged, waded the creek
at my side, holding to my stirrup-iron, while I carried his
musket. I-He, less fortunate than his long-legged comrades,
was plastered fiom waist-belt to brogans, usque adC nauseCamn.
On taking his gun he remarked: " that's first rate mud, sir
it's patched all the holes in my trowsers." But the odor,
I suggested, might not be quite as agreeable as that of spring