ed, prob'ly. But who should I meet up with one day
but Art himself, lookin' wilder an' more reckless than when I seen him
last. He comes up to me and slaps me on the shoulder an' calls me by name
a'most before I knowed him. An' it did give me a big surprise to see how
he had changed; not so much in looks as in his ways. He was that rough
like. After a while he tol' me all about himself, an' I could a jist
cried tears for him like a baby.

"He had got started home, he tol' me, after the fightin' was over, an' I
don't know but he might a' been pretty near there--I don't just
remember--but anyhow, who should he meet up with one day in a tavern, but
a cousin o' his who looked so much like him they would 'a passed for
twins anywhere. This here cousin's name was Ichabod Nesbit, an' the first
thing he did when he saw Art was to shake hands with him like they was at
a funeral an' say as how he had some awful bad news to tell him. An' then
he went on to tell him as how his mother had died months before, an' his
ol' pap was livin' on an' cursin' the Colonies with pretty nigh every
breath--an' cursin' his own son. This Nesbit feller told Art, too, as how
the ol' man had run through all his property an' was livin' alone an'
actin' like a crazy man.

"Waal, Art was for goin' back to see the ol' man anyhow, to see if he
couldn't do somethin' to straighten him up some; but this cousin,
Ichabod, tol' him as how he hadn't better do it, sayin' as how if he
could come home an' bring a fortune, folks would say it was all right;
but if he was comin' home with only the clothes on his back, why, he had
better stay away; because he couldn't do nothin' with his father anyhow.
An' somehow this is jist the way Art was brought to look at it, an' it
upset him terrible. For of course the soldiers didn't have no pocket full
o' money an' it was pretty true, likewise, as how he didn't have much
more'n the clothes on his back, jist as Ichabod said. Pretty blue, an' a'
most sick from all his plans o' goin' home bein' spoiled, Art turned back
right thar and led a rovin' life for years. He was quick an' sharp, an'
picked up a livin', but that was 'bout all for he couldn't settle down no
place.

"All this an' a lot more 'bout what he had been doin', Art tol' me there
in Philadelphia, an' I was for gettin' him to go back west with me. But
no, he wouldn't; an' me bein' no hand to make out around the towns, I
jist went back to the frontier an' beyond. I was