methin' that it is or somethin' that it does, and that
way every child has a different sort o' love, and maybe one child'll
have a little bit more love than the rest. We always accused Mother of
bein' partial to my two brothers, Jonathan and David, and Mother never
denied it. She'd laugh and say, 'Well, what if I am? The rest of you
ain't mistreated, are you?' And when I ricollect how brother David and
brother Jonathan looked and what kind o' men they were, I can't blame
Mother for bein' a little prouder and a little fonder o' them than she
was o' the rest of us. Mother always called 'em her twins, because
there was jest a little over a year betwixt 'em and mighty little
difference in their size. David was the oldest, and Mother named him
for her father; and when Jonathan was born she said, 'Now, I've got a
Jonathan for my David. And,' says she, 'Maybe they'll be good boys and
love each other like David and Jonathan did.' You ricollect what the
Bible says: 'The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David; and
Jonathan loved him as his own soul,' and when Jonathan was killed you
ricollect how David said, 'Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the
love of woman.'

"And sure enough, child, that's the way it was with my two brothers.
Their souls appeared to be knit together, and they loved each other
with a love 'passin' the love of woman.'

"The rest of us children used to fall out now and then, like children
will, even when they love each other, but David and Jonathan--why,
there never was a cross word or hard feelin' between 'em, and it was
the prettiest sight in the world to see them two boys walkin' together
holdin' each other's hands and laughin' and talkin' like sweethearts.
I ricollect once they was sittin' on a bench readin' out o' the same
book, and Mother looked at 'em awhile, and says she to Father, 'Do
you reckon there's anything in this world that can ever come betwixt
David and Jonathan?' And Father he laughed, and says he, 'Yes, there's
one thing that can come betwixt any two men God ever made.' And Mother
says, 'What is it?' And Father laughed again--he always liked to tease
Mother--and says he, 'Why, a woman, of course.' Says he, 'Jest let
them two boys fall in love with the same woman and that'll put a stop
to all this David and Jonathan business.'

"But it wasn't a woman that come between my brothers, it was the war.
It was a long time before the family found out that David and Jonathan
didn't th