While in Louisville many of Fred's leisure moments were spent at the hospitable home of the Vaughns. Mabel's betrothed was now at the front, and it was astonishing how much note paper that young lady used in writing to him.
"You don't write that often to your brother," said Fred, smiling.
"My brother?" asked Mabel, looking up in surprise.
"Yes, your humble servant; didn't you adopt me as a brother?"
Mabel burst out laughing. "Oh!" she replied, "one doesn't have to write so often to a brother. Lovers are like babies; they have to be petted. But to change the subject, where does my knight-errant expect to go for his next adventure?"
"I don't know," answered Fred. "Things appear to be rather quiet just now."
But events were even then transpiring that were to take Fred to a different theater of action.