“It is the loveliest day of fullest spring.  An aspen under the window whispers to me in a chorus of all its leaves, and when I look out, every leaf turns a sunbeam at me.  I am writing in Viele’s quarters in the villa of Somebody Stone, upon whose place or farm we are encamped.  The man who built and set down these four great granite pillars in front of his house, for a carriage-porch, had an eye or two for a fine site.  This seems to be the finest possible about Washington.  It is a terrace called Meridian Hill, two miles north of Pennsylvania Avenue.  The house commands the vista of the Potomac, all the plain of the city, and a charming lawn of delicious green, with oaks of first dignity just coming into leaf.  It is lovely Nature, and the spot has snatched a grace from Art.  The grounds are laid out after a fashion, and planted with shrubbery.  The snowballs are at their snowballiest.....  Have you heard or—­how many times have you used the simile of some one, Bad-muss or Cadmus, or another hero, who sowed the dragon’s teeth, and they came up dragoons a hundred-fold and infantry a thousand-fold? Nil admirari is, of course, my frame of mind; but I own astonishment at the crop of soldiers.  They must ripen awhile, perhaps, before they are to be named quite soldiers.  Ripening takes care of itself; and by the harvest-time they will be ready to cut down.

“I find that the men best informed about the South do not anticipate much severe fighting.  Scott’s Fabian policy will demoralize their armies.  If the people do not bother the great Cunetator to death before he is ready to move to assured victory, he will make defeat impossible.  Meanwhile there will be enough outwork going on, like those neat jobs in Missouri, to keep us all interested......  Know, O comrade, that I am already a corporal,—­an acting corporal, selected by our commanding officer for my general effect of pipe-clay, my rapidity of heel and toe, my present arms, etc., but liable to be ousted by suffrage any moment. Quod faustum sit, ...  I had already been introduced to the Secretary of War.....  I called at ----’s and saw, with two or three others,---- on the sofa.  Him my prophetic soul named my uncle to be.....  But in my uncle’s house are many nephews, and whether nepotism or my transcendent merit will prevail we shall see.  I have fun,—­I get experience,—­I see much,—­it pays.  Ah, yes!  But in these fair days of May I miss my Staten Island.  War stirs the pulse, but it wounds a little all the time.

“Compliment for me Tib [a little dog] and the Wisterias,—­also the mares and the billiard-table.  Ask ——­ to give you t’other lump of sugar in my behalf....  Should ——­ return, say that I regret not being present with an unpremeditated compliment, as thus,—­’Ah! the first rose of summer!’....  I will try to get an enemy’s button for ——­, should the enemy attack.  If the Seventh returns presently, I am afraid I shall be obliged to return with them for a time.  But I mean to see this job through, somehow.”