Page:The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier.pdf/108

106 athletic fellow, the other was a much smaller man. All of a sudden the first says, "faith, Jammy, will you take a box." "Aye, and thank ye too," replied the other. No sooner said than done, out they went, and all followed to see the sport, as they thought it, I suppose; it was a cold frosty day, in the month of December, the ground all around the place, was ploughed and frozen as hard as a pavement. They immediately stripped to the buff, and a broad ring was directly formed for the combatants, (and they needed a broad one,) when they prepared for the battle. The first pass they made at each other, their arms drawing their bodies forward, they passed without even touching either; the first that picked them up was the frozen ground, which made the claret, as they called the blood, flow plentifully. They, however, with considerable difficulty, put themselves into a position for a second bout, when they made the same pass-by as at the first. The little fellow, after getting upon his feet again, as well as he could, cried out, "I am too drunk to fight," and crawled off as fast as he was able, to the sutler's hut again, the other followed, both as bloody as butchers, to drink friends again, where no friendship had been lost. And there I left them and went to my tent, thankful that Yankees, with all their follies, lacked such a refined folly as this.

The main army, about this time, quitted the eastern side of the Hudson river and passed into New-Jersey, to winter-quarters; the Connecticut and New-Hampshire troops went to Reading and Danbury, in the western part of Connecticut. The Light Infantry, likewise, broke up their encampment at Bedford, and separated to join their respective regiments in the line. On our march to join our regiment, some of our gentlemen officers happening to stop at a tavern, or rather a sort of grog-shop, took such a seasoning, that two or three of them became "quite frisky," as the old Indian said of his young squaw. They kept running and chasing each other backward and forward by the troops, as they walked along the road, acting rediculously. They soon, however, broke up the sport, for two of them at last, got by the ears, to the no small diversion of the soldiers, (for nothing could please them better than to see the officers quarrel amongst themselves.)