about ten o'clock in the morning
I stopped and apologized , but he said not to mind him , as he was better now . He told me , afterwards , in the strictest confidence , that my singing was the worst he ever heard , and gave it as his opinion that if Jeff Davis could hear me sing he would be willing , even anxious , to be hung . If I had been sensitive about my musical talents , probably there would have been hard feelings , and possibly bloodshed , right there , but I told him I always knew I could n't sing , and he said that I was in luck . Well , we fooled around there till about ten o'clock in the morning , and decided that we would part , and each seek our respective commands , so I put some more horse liniment on his sprained ankle , and he saddled my horse for me , and after expressions of mutual pleasure at meeting each other , and promises that after the war we would seek each other out , we mounted , he gave three cheers for the Yanks , and I gave three cheers for the Johnnies , he divided his plug of tobacco with me , and I gave him the bottle of horse liniment , he turned his horse towards the direction his gray coats had taken the night before , while I turned my horse towards the hole in the woods our fellows had made , and we left the race track where we had fought so gamely , eat so heartily , and played poker so disastrously , to me . As we were each about going into the woods , half a mile apart , he waved his handkerchief at me , and I waved mine at him , and we plunged into the forest . After riding for an hour or so , alone in the woods , thinking up a good lie to tell about where I had been , and what I had been doing , I heard horses neighing , and presently I came upon my regiment , just starting out to hunt me up . The colonel looked at me and said , `` Kill the fat prodigal , the calf has got back . ''