"'We never do hear of Jeff none all through that war but once. After
he's j'ined Stonewall Jackson, I recalls how he sends home six
hundred dollars in confed'rate money with a letter to my father. It
runs like this:
In camp with Stonewall Jackson.
Respected Sir:
The slave who bears this will give you from me a treasure of six
hundred dollars. I desire that you pay the tavern and whatever
creditors of mine you find. To owe debts does not comport with the
honor of a cavalier, and I propose to silence all base clamors on
that head. I remain, most venerated sir, Yours to command,
Jefferson Sterett.
"'That's the last we-all hears of my sens'tive an' high-sperited
brother ontil after Mister Lee surrenders. It's one mornin' when
Jeff comes home, an' the manner of his return shorely displays his
nobility of soul, that a-way, as ondiscouraged an' ondimmed. No
one's lookin' for Jeff partic'lar, when I hears a steamboat whistle
for our landin'. I, bein' as I am full of the ontamed cur'osity of
yooth, goes curvin' out to see what's up. I hears the pilot give the
engineer the bells to set her back. on the sta'board wheel, an' then
on both. The boat comes driftin' in. A stagin' is let down, an with
the tread of a conqueror who should come ashore but my brother Jeff!
Thar's nothin' in his hands; he ain't got nothin' with him that he
ain't wearin'.
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