left arm a-fighting over that same Jay Timlow, who had got a ball
in the leg, and Le Moyne was trying to keep him out of the hands
of you Yanks.

"He got back after a while, and has been living with his mother on
the old plantation ever since. He married a cousin just before he
went into the service--more to have somebody to leave with his ma
than because he wanted a wife, folks said. The old man, Colonel
Casaubon, died during the war. He never seemed like himself after
the boy went into the army. I saw him once or twice, and I never
did see such a change in any man. Le Moyne's wife died, too. She
left a little boy, who with Le Moyne and his ma are all that's left
of the family. I don't reckon there ever was a man thought more
of his mother, or had a mother more worth setting store by, than
Hesden Le Moyne." They had reached the hotel when this account
was concluded, and after dinner the sheriff came to the captain's
room and introduced a slender young man in neatly fitting jeans,
with blue eyes, a dark brown beard, and an empty coat-sleeve, as
Mr. Hesden Le Moyne.

He put his felt hat under the stump of his left arm and extended
his right hand as he said simply:

"The sheriff said you wished to see me about Eliab Hill."

"I did," was the response; "but after what he has told me, I desired
to see you much more for yourself."

The sheriff withdrew, leaving them alone together, and they fell
to talking of army life at once, as old soldiers always will, each