thy wishes? 
Any one else, had he heard thee thus speak, would in sooth have commended,
And this decision of thine would have highly approved as most noble,
Being misled by thy tone and by thy significant language. 
Yet have I nothing but censure to speak; for better I know thee. 
Thou concealest thy heart, and thy thoughts are not such as thou tellest. 
Well do I know that it is not the drum, not the trumpet that calls thee: 
Neither in uniform wouldst thou figure in sight of the maidens;
Since, for all thou art honest and brave, it is thy vocation
Here in quiet to care for the farm and provide for the household. 
Tell me honestly, therefore, what goads thee to such a decision?”

Earnestly answered the son:  “Nay, thou art mistaken, dear mother: 
One day is not like another.  The youth matures into manhood: 
Better in stillness oft ripening to deeds than when in the tumult
Wildering and wild of existence, that many a youth has corrupted. 
And, for as still as I am and was always, there yet in my bosom
Has such a heart been shaped as abhors all wrong and injustice;
And I have learned aright between worldly things to distinguish. 
Arm and foot, besides, have been mightily strengthened by labor. 
All this, I feel, is true:  I dare with boldness maintain it. 
Yet dost thou blame me with reason, O mother! for thou hast surprised me
Using a language half truthful and half that of dissimulation. 
For, let me honestly own,—­it is not the near danger that calls me
Forth from my father’s house; nor is it the lofty ambition
Helpful to be to my country, and terrible unto the foeman. 
They were but words that I spoke:  they only were meant for concealing
Those emotions from thee with which my heart is distracted;
And so leave me, O mother! for, since the wishes are fruitless
Which in my bosom I cherish, my life must go fruitlessly over. 
For, as I know, he injures himself who is singly devoted,
When for the common cause the whole are not working together.”

“Hesitate not,” replied thereupon the intelligent mother,
“Every thing to relate me, the smallest as well as the greatest. 
Men will always be hasty, their thoughts to extremes ever running: 
Easily out of their course the hasty are turned by a hindrance. 
Whereas a woman is clever in thinking of means, and will venture
E’en on a roundabout way, adroitly to compass her object. 
Let me know every thing, then; say wherefore so greatly excited
’As I ne’er saw thee before, why thy blood is coursing so hotly,
Wherefore, against thy will, tears are filling thine eyes to o’erflowing.”