e, and had been in love with his sweetheart for years, but
could never make any impression on her. She was a beautiful girl, he
said, and the greatest belle in the country round. Her father was one
of the big lawyers there, and had a fine old place, and the stable was
always full of horses of the young fellows who used to be coming to see
her, and 'she used to make me sick, I tell you,' he said, 'I used to
hate 'em all; I wasn't afraid of 'em; but I used to hate a man to look
at her; it seemed so impudent in him; and I'd have been jealous if she
had looked at the sun. Well, I didn't know what to do. I'd have been
ready to fight 'em all for her, if that would have done any good, but
it wouldn't; I didn't have any right to get mad with 'em for loving her,
and if I had got into a row she'd have sent me off in a jiffy. But just
then the war came on, and it was a Godsend to me. I went in first thing.
I made up my mind to go in and fight like five thousand furies, and I
thought maybe that would win her, and it did; it worked first-rate. I
went in as a private, and I got a bullet through me in about six months,
through my right lung, that laid me off for a year or so; then I went
back and the boys made me a lieutenant, and when the captain was made a
major, I was made captain. I was offered something higher once or twice,
but I thought I'd rather stay with my company; I knew the boys, and they
knew me, and we had got sort of used to each other--to depending on each
other, as it were. The war fixed me all right, though. When I went home
that first time my wife had come right around, and as soon as I was well
enough we were married. I always said if I could find that Yankee that
shot me I'd like to make him a present. I found out that the great
trouble with me had been that I had not been bold enough; I used to
let her go her own way too much, and seemed to be afraid of her. I WAS
afraid of her, too. I bet that's your trouble, sir: are you afraid of
her?' I told him I thought I was. 'Well, sir,' he said, 'it will never
do; you mustn't let her think that--never. You cannot help being afraid
of her, for every man is that; but it is fatal to let her know it. Stand
up, sir, stand up for your rights. If you are bound to get down on your
knees--and every man feels that he is--don't do it; get up and run out
and roll in the dust outside somewhere where she can't see you. Why,
sir,' he said, 'it doesn't do to even let her think she's havin