naturally, quite warmly received. As a veteran not unwilling to
recount his adventures by flood and field, he speedily became famous
as the hero of many deeds of valor and of blood. He had been assistant
surgeon of his regiment, it appeared, but nevertheless had fought in
the ranks in every important engagement of the war from Monterey to
Churubusco, and the number of men who had fallen by his own hand from
first to last he could not undertake to estimate. Though traces of a
somewhat lively imagination might be detected in most of the doctor's
stories, there is really no good reason to doubt that he spoke the
simple truth when he averred that with his red right hand he had mowed
down men like grass, for he actually retained the position of hospital
steward throughout the whole term of his service.

Finding himself after the lapse of a few weeks not without honor in
this Indiana town, he struck out suddenly one day a brilliant idea:
he would devote his remaining years to the practice of the profession
into which Fortune had so kindly inducted him. He hired a house, hung
out his banner, and wrote to his wife and daughter, who had remained
at Vicksburg, to come on immediately to his new home, as his fortune
was now made.

Hanchett had married, at an early stage in his original career, the
only daughter of a bankrupt Vicksburg storekeeper. This young woman,
who had doubtless found ample opportunity for the practice of domestic
economy in the paternal home, soon proved herself to be a most
excellent housekeeper on her own account. She was a jewel indeed to
her improvident husband, who, finding that she made shift by one means
or another to keep the family larder supplied, whether he kept her
purse supplied or not, dismissed a great care from his mind at once
and for ever, and thenceforth to the end of his days never exerted