96              
                Beaufort, South Carolina.
Loafing and reading.  Returned at night
to the Signal Corps, to share the bed of Lieut.
Howard.
   15.  Tuesday.  Breakfast with Hickox-
Saw the other fellows off.  Loafing till dinner-
time; then to the Signal Corps.  Howard off to
Hilton Head so I occupied the big four-poster
alone.  This very house had, I was told be-
longed to a Mr. Hayward of Charleston.  It
might have been the husband of the pretty woman
I saw there.
   16.  Wednesday.  Arrival of newspapers from
the north.  Rather a state dinner in honor of
visitors.  Loafing in the afternoon; at Hick-
ox�s, Morrow�s. Got a horse from the latter
and went out for a ride with Babcock and
Brodie, ride across the island by the broad
shell road by which the South Carolinians
evacuated Beaufort when the federal troops
came thither.  My horse was a big �skeary.�
brute, who shied at everything, went like
a racer, and was vicious withal; I had
work to keep on him.  The road a fine one,
bordered by fine trees; it reminded me
of an English highway.  The weather blazing
hot.  Past pickets and a line of earthworks
then turned back.  A job dismounting.