though you are a hundred pounds the better
of me in weight, and a West Point graduate,
I will wager my pipe (which is worth its
weight in diamonds) against that old woollen
shirt of Montezuma's that you showed me
yesterday, that I can lick you to-day, and
forget all about it before bedtime!"

"Well, I guess you could," returned the
general, with a little chuckle, "even if I
hadn't that Mexican bullet in my leg. But
you couldn't, forty-five years ago, though
you tried, and though I was a year younger
than you, and weighed five pounds less.
Come, now: you don't mean to say you've
forgotten Susan Brown!"

"Oh--ah--hah! Susan Brown! Well,
I declare! And what brought her into your
head, I should like to know?"

"Why, after breaking your heart first, and
then mine, I lost sight of her, and I don't
think I have seen her since. But it appears
she was married to a fellow named Parsloe."

"Don't fancy that name!" observed the
professor, wagging his head and frowning.
"Has a mean sound to it. But what of it?"