title: Blooms In The Desert: Writings by Louis DeWitt, Bonnie Harma, Sharon Hoffschneider, Nancy Archibald, Jo St. Pierre and Robert Bonack
author: Robert L. Tasler Editor
description: Robert L. Tasler has edited this brief collection of writings by students in a publishing seminar he led at Palm Creek, the winter resort where he resides. Tasler, a retired Lutheran minister, has written and published nearly a dozen and a half works and resides six months in Casa Grande, Arizona, and six months in Castle Rock, Colorado.
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  # The Deserter
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Richard Harding Davis
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  INTRODUCTION
  
  
  THE DESERTER
  
  
  
  
  
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  Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Stephanie Tarnacki and the Online
  
  
  Distributed Proofreading Team.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE DESERTER
  
  
  BY
  
  
  RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
  
  
  WITH AN INTRODUCTION
  
  
  BY
  
  
  JOHN T. MCCUTCHEON
  
  
  NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1918
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### INTRODUCTION
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  When Mr. Davis wrote the story of “The Deserter,” he could not
  
  
  possibly have foreseen that it was to be his last story—the last of
  
  
  those short stories which gave him such eminence as a short-story
  
  
  writer.
  
  
    
  He apparently was as rugged and as vigorous as ever.
  
  
    
  And yet, had he sat down to write a story which he knew was to be
  
  
  his last, I do not think he could have written one more fittingly
  
  
  designed to be the capstone of his literary monument. The theme is one
  
  
  in which he h