here sometimes. First of the quarter, when bills
are coming round, we have a rush, and holidays and Easter we've got to
hire an express wagon."

It was when I asked him about his empty sleeve, however, and he had told
me that he lost his arm at Chancellorsville, that we became really
friendly When he said he had been a corporal in General Maitland's
command, my path was one of ease.

"The Maitland ladies! I should say I do," he said warmly. "I've been
fighting with Letitia Maitland as long as I can remember. That woman
will scrap with the angel Gabriel at the resurrection, if he wakes her
up before she's had her sleep out."

"Miss Jane is not that sort, is she?"

"Miss Jane? She's an angel--she is that. She could have been married a
dozen times when she was a girl, but Letitia wouldn't have it. I was
after her myself, forty-five years ago. This was the Maitland farm in
those days, and my father kept a country store down where the railroad
station is now."

"I suppose from that the Maitland ladies are wealthy."

"Wealthy! They don't know what they're worth--not that it matters a mite
to Jane Maitland. She hasn't called her soul her own for so long that I
guess the good Lord won't hold her responsible for it."

All of which was entertaining, but it was much like an old-fashioned
see-saw; it kept going, but it didn't make much progress. But now at
last we took a step ahead.

"It's a shameful thing," the old man pursued, "that a woman as old as
Jane should have to get her letters surreptitiously. For more than a
year now she's been coming here twice a week for her mail, and I've been
keeping it for her. Rain or shine, Mondays and Thursdays, she's been
coming, and a sight of letters she's been getting, too."

"Did she come last Thursday?" I asked over-eagerly. The postmaster, all
at once, regarded me with suspicion.

"I don't know whether she did or not," he said coldly, and my further
attempts to beguile him into conversation failed. I pocketed my stamps,
and by that time his resentment at my curiosity was fading. He followed
me to the door, and lowered his voice cautiously.

"Any news of the old lady?" he asked. "It ain't generally known around
here that she's missing, but Heppie, the cook there, is a relation of my
wife's."

"We have no news," I replied, "and don't let it get around, will you?"

He promised gravely.

"I was tellin' the missus the other day," he said, "that there is an old
walled-up cella