m on a rail out of the town on the day
of the funeral, as a propitiatory sacrifice to the manes of Thomas
Jeffcourt; but it being pointed out by the undertaker that it might
involve some uncertainty in the settlement of his bill, together with
some reasonable doubt of the thorough resignation of Corbin, whose
previous momentary aberration in that respect they were celebrating, the
project was postponed until AFTER THE FUNERAL. And here an unlooked-for
incident occurred.

There was to be a political meeting at Kirby on that day, when certain
distinguished Southern leaders had gathered from the remoter Southern
States. At the instigation of Captain Dows it was adjourned at the hour
of the funeral to enable members to attend, and it was even rumored,
to the great delight of Pineville, that a distinguished speaker or two
might come over to "improve the occasion" with some slight allusion to
the engrossing topic of "Southern Rights." This combined appeal to
the domestic and political emotions of Pineville was irresistible. The
Second Baptist Church was crowded. After the religious service there
was a pause, and Judge Reed, stepping forward amid a breathless silence,
said that they were peculiarly honored by the unexpected presence in
their midst "of that famous son of the South, Colonel Starbottle,"
who had lately returned to his native soil from his adopted home in
California. Every eye was fixed on the distinguished stranger as he
rose.

Jaunty and gallant as ever, femininely smooth-faced, yet polished and
high colored as a youthful mask; pectorally expansive, and unfolding the
white petals of his waistcoat through the swollen lapels of his coat,
like a bursting magnolia bud, Colonel Starbottle began. The present
associations were, he might say, singularly hallowed to him; not only
was Pineville--a Southern centre--the recognized nursery of Southern
chivalry, Southern beauty (a stately inclination to the pew in which
Miss Sally and Julia Jeffcourt sat), Southern intelligence, and Southern
independence, but it was the home of the lamented dead who had been,
like himself and another he should refer to later, an adopted citizen of
the Golden State, a seeker of the Golden Fleece, a companion of Jason.
It was the home, fellow-citizens and friends, of the sorrowing sister of
the deceased, a young lady whom he, the speaker, had as yet known only
through the chivalrous blazon of her virtues and graces by her attendant
knights (a