own ded husban', (I
shudn't hev put thet in, but d----d ef I cud help it,) ye wun't put
_har_ up on the block, an' hev har struck down ter the hi'est bider, ter
bee made a d----d ---- on?'

'Wal, I s'pose she haden't forgot thet fur more'n twelve yar the Cunnel
hed _luv'd_ t'other 'oman an' onely _liked_ har; fur w'en I sed thet,
har ize snapped like h----l, an' she screetched eout thet she dident
'low no sech wurds in har hous', an' ordurd me ter leave. Mitey sqeemish
thet, warn't it? bein' as shede been fur so mony yar the Cunnel's ----,
an' th' tuther one his raal wife.

'Wal, I _did_ leav'; but I leff a piece of mi mind ahind. I toled har
I'de buy thet ar 'oman ef she cost all I war wuth and I had ter pawne my
sole ter git the money; an' I added, jest by way uv sweet'nin' the pill,
thet I owed all I hed ter har husband, an' dident furget _my_ dets ef
she did _hern_, an' ef his own wife disgraced him, I'd be d----d ef _I_
wud.

'Wal, I've got th' ma'am an' har boy ter hum, an' my 'oman hes tuk ter
har a heep. I doan't no w'en the sale's ter cum off, but ye may bet hi'
on my bein' thar, an' I'll buy har ef I hev ter go my hull pile on har,
an' borrer th' money fur ole Pomp. But _he'll_ go cheap, 'case the
Cunnel's deth nigh dun him up. It clean killed Ante Lucey. She never
held her hed up arter she heerd 'Masser Davy' war ded, fur she sot har
vary life on him. Don't ye feel consarned 'bout the ma'am--I knows ye
sot hi' on har. _I'll buy har_ shore. Thet an' deth ar th' onely things
thet I knows on, in this world, jess now, that ar SARTIN.'

Such is Andy's letter. Misspelled and profane though it be, I would not
alter a word or a syllable of it. It deserves to be written in
characters of gold and hung up in the sky, where it might be read by all
the world. And it _is_ written in the sky--in the great record book--and
it will be read when you and I, reader, meet the assembled universe, to
give account of what _we_ have done and written. God grant that our
record may show some such deed as that!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The whisky was kept in a back room, above ground, because
the dwelling had no cellar. The fluid was kept safely under lock and
key, and the farmer accounted for that by saying that his negroes would
steal nothing but whisky. Few country houses at the South have a
cellar--that apartment deemed so essential by Northern housekeepers. The
intervening space between the ground and the floor is there le