e winding Tennessee, the Major sat
up late in eager discussion about Old Hickory with an enthusiastic
Tennesseean. The ladies had retired, and the Boy listened with quiet
eagerness to the talk.

"Waal, we're goin' ter make Andrew Jackson President anyhow, Major!" the
Tennesseean drawled.

"I'm afraid they'll beat us," the Major answered, with a shake of his
head.

"How'll they beat us when we git ready ter make the fight?"

"Old Hickory says himself, he ain't fit--"

"I reckon we know more about that than he does," persisted the man from
Tennessee.

"The aristocrats don't think so--"

"What t'ell they got agin him? Ain't he the biggest man in this country
to-day? Didn't he lick Spain and England both at Pensacola and didn't he
finish the Red Coats at New Orleans--"

"They say his education's poor--"

"He knowed enough to make this country cock o' the walk--what more do
they want--damn 'em!"

"They say he swears--"

The Tennesseean roared:

"Waal, if all the cussin' men vote fur him--he'll sho be elected!"

"The real trouble--" the Major said thoughtfully, "is what the
scandal-mongers keep saying about his wife--"

"He's killed one son-of-a-gun about that already, an' they better let
him alone--"

"That's just it, my friend: he killed that skunk in a duel and it's not
the only one he has fought either. Old Hickory's got the temper of the
devil."

"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