An' all he has on is a old wool hat, a hick'ry shirt,
gray trousers, an' a pair of copper-rivet shoes as red as a bay
hoss. As he strikes the bank, Jeff turns an' sweeps the scene with
the eye of a eagle. Then takin' a bogus silver watch outen his
pocket, he w'irls her over his head by the leather string an' lets
her go out into the river, ker-chunk!
"'"Which I enters into this yere rebellion," says Jeff, flashin' a
proud, high glance on me where I stands wonderin', "without nothin',
an' I proposes to return with honor ontarnished, an' as pore as I
goes in."
"'As me an' Jeff reepairs up to the house, I notes the most
renegade-lookin' nigger followin' behind.
"'"Whoever's dis yere nigger?" I asks.
"'"He's my valet," says Jeff.
"'My arm's a heap too slight,' goes on Colonel Sterett, followin' a
small libation, 'to strike a blow for the confed'racy, but my soul
is shorely in the cause. I does try to j'ine, final, an' is only
saved tharfrom, an' from what would, ondoubted, have been my certain
death, by a reb gen'ral named Wheeler. He don't mean to do it; she's
inadvertent so far as he's concerned; but he saves me jest the same.
An' settin' yere as I be, enjoyin' the friendship an' esteem of you-
all citizens of Wolfville, I feels more an' more the debt of
gratitoode I owes that gallant officer an' man.
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