into the fite. He doant find the klime-it here as healthy as it
is in Sardis. i 'stinguished myself and have bin promoted, and
ive got a Rebel gun for you with a bore big enuff to put a walnut
in, and it'll jest nock your hole darned shoulder off every time
you shoot it. No more yours til deth send me some finecut tobacker
for heavens sake.

Jacob Alspaugh.


Rachel tore the letter into a thousand fragments, and flung the
volume of poems into the ditch below. She hastened to her room,
and no one saw her again until the next morning, when she came
down dressed in somber black, her face pale, and her colorless lips
tightly compressed.





Chapter II. First Shots.




"Cowards fear to die; but courage stout,
Rather than live in snuff, will be put out."
--Sir Walter Raleigh, on "The Snuff of a Candle."