"'Thar's a lady back
in Tennessee which Spencer's made overtures to. before he goes to
war that time, to wed. Young she is; beautiful, high-grade, corn-
fed, an' all that; an' comes of one of the most clean-bred fam'lies
of the whole Cumberland country. I will interject right yere to say
that thar's ladies of two sorts. If a loved one, tender an' troo,
turns up missin' at roll-call, an' the phenomenon ain't accompanied
with explanations, one sort thinks he's quit, an' the other thinks
he's killed. Spencer's inamorata is of the former. She's got what
the neighbors calls "hoss sense." She listens to what little thar is
to tell of Spencer fadin' from our midst that Plaza Perdita day,
shrugs her shoulders, an' turns her back on Spencer's mem'ry. An'
the next news you gets is of how, inside of three months, she jumps
some gent--who's off his gyard an' is lulled into feelin's of false
secoority--ropes, throws, ties an' weds him a heap, an' he wakes up
to find he's a gone fawn-skin, an' to realize his peril after he's
onder its hoofs. That's what this Cumberland lady does. I makes no
comments; I simply relates it an' opens a door an' lets her out.
"'I'm back in Tennessee mighty nigh a year before ever I hears ag'in
of Lootenant Jack Spencer of the Pine Knot Cavaliers.
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