"Waal, thar ain't nothin' in them lies about his wife--"

The Major lifted his hand and moved closer:

"There's just enough truth at the bottom of it all to give the liars the
chance they need to talk forever--"

"I never knowed thar wuz ary grain er truth in hit, at all--"

"There is, though," the Major interrupted, "and that's where we're going
to have a big fight on our hands when it comes to the rub. This Lewis
Robards, her first husband, was a quarrelsome cuss. Every man that
looked at his wife, he swore was after her, and if she lifted her eyes,
he was sure she was guilty. There was no divorce law in Virginia and
Robards petitioned the Legislature to pass an Act of Divorce in his
favor. The dog swore in this petition that his wife had deserted him and
was living with Andrew Jackson. He _was_ boarding with her mother, the
widow Donelson. The Legislature passed the Act, but it only authorized
the Courts of the Territory of Kentucky to try the case, and grant the
divorce if the facts were proven.

"Robards never went to Court with it for over two years, and Jackson,
under the impression that the Legislature had given the divorce, married
Rachel Robards at Natchez in August, 1791.

"Two years later, the skunk slips into Court and gets his divorce!

"As quick as Old Hickory heard this, he married her over again. There
was a mighty hullabaloo kicked up about it by the politicians. They
tried to run Jackson out of the country--the little pups who were afraid