In every respect you are absolutely
qualified physically to make a regular man-eating bearcat of a
soldier"--he paused--"in every respect excepting one--no, two."

If a drowning man clutching for a straw might be imagined as
coincidentally asking a question, it is highly probable he would ask it
in the tone now used by Jeff.

"Meanin'--meanin' w'ich, suh?"

"I mean your feet. You've got flat feet, Jeff--you've got the flattest
feet I ever saw. I don't understand it either. So far as I've been able
to observe you've spent the greater part of your life sitting down.
Somebody must have hit you on the head with an ax when you were standing
on a plowshare and broke your arches down."

It was an old joke, but it fitted the present case, and Jeff, not to be
outdone in politeness, laughed louder at it than its maker did. Indeed
Jeff felt he had reason to laugh; a great load was lifting from his
soul.

"Jeff," went on the doctor, "deeply though it may grieve both of us, it
nevertheless is my painful duty to inform you that you have two
perfectly good exemptions from military service--a right one and a left
one. Now grab your hat and get out of here."

"Boss," cried Jeff, "Ise gone. Exemptions, tek me away frum yere!"

So while many others went away to fight or to learn how to fight, as the
case might be, Jeff stayed behind and did his bit by remaining
steadfastly cheerful. Never before, sartorially speaking, had he cut so
splendid a figure as now when such numbers of young white gentlemen of
his acquaintance were putting aside civilian garb to put on khaki. Jeff
had one of those adaptable figures. The garments to which he fell heir
might never have fitted their original owner, but always they would fit
Jeff. Gorgeous in slightly worn but carefully refurbished raiment, he
figured in the wartime activities of the colored population and in
ostensibly helpful capacities figured in some of the activities of the
white folks too.

Going among his own set his frequent companion was that straw-colored
light of his social hours, Ophelia Stubblefield. It helped to reconcile
Jeff to the rigors of the period of enforced rationing as he reflected
that the same issues and causes which made lump sugar a rarity and fat
meat a scarcity had rid him of his more dangerous competition in the
quarter where his affections centered. Particularly on one account did
he feel reconciled. A spirit of the most soothful resignation filled him
when h