And until the twilight came
we sat together, dreaming of faded moons."

CHAPTER XVI

Colonel Martin Culpepper was standing with, one foot on the window
ledge in the office of Philemon R. Ward one bright spring morning
watching the procession of humanity file into the post-office and out
into the street upon the regular business of life. Mrs. Watts
McHurdie, a bride of five years and obviously proud of it, hurried by,
and Mrs. John Barclay drove down the street in her phaeton; Oscar
Fernald, with a pencil behind his ear, came out of his office licking
an envelope and loped into the post-office and out like a dog looking
for his bone; and then a lank figure sauntered down the street,
stopping here and there to talk with a passerby, stepping into a
stairway to light a cigar, and betimes leaning languidly against an
awning post in the sun and overhauling farmers passing down Main
Street in their wagons.

"He's certainly a gallus-looking slink," ejaculated the colonel.

The general, writing at his desk, asked, "Who?"

"Our old friend and comrade in arms, Lige Bemis." At the blank look on
the general's face the colonel shook his head wearily. "Don't know
what a gallus-looking slink is, do you? General, the more I live with
you damn Yankees and fight for your flag and die for your country,
sir, the more astonished I am at your limited and provincial knowledge
of the United States language. Here you are, a Harvard graduate, with
the Harvard pickle dripping off your ears, confessing such ignorance
of your mother-tongue. General, a gallus-looking slink is four hoss
thieves, three revenue officers, a tin pedler, and a sheep-killing
dog, all rolled into one man. And as I before remarked, our beloved
comrade, Lige Bemis, is certainly a gallus-looking slink."

"Far be it from me," continued the colonel, "residing as I may say in
a rather open and somewhat exposed domicile--a glass house in
fact--to throw stones at Elijah Westlake Bemis,--far be it." The
colonel patted himself heroically on the stomach and laughed.
"Doubtless, while I haven't been a professional horse thief, nor a
cattle rustler, still, probably, if the truth was known, I've done a
number of things equally distasteful--I was going to say
obnoxious--in the sight of Mr. Bemis, so we'll let that pass." The
colonel stretched his suspenders out and let them flap against the
plaits of his immaculate shirt. "But I will say, General, that as I
see it, it will