“How terrible!  Oh, when will it be over!” sighed Letty one day, after hearing a long list of the dead and wounded in one of the great battles of that second summer.

“Never till we have beaten!” cried David, throwing down the paper and walking about the room with his head up like a war-horse who smells powder.  “It is terrible and yet glorious.  I thank heaven I live to see this great wrong righted, and only wish I could do my share like a man.”

“That is natural; but there are plenty of men who have fewer ties than you, who can fight better, and whose places are easier to fill than yours if they die,” said Christie, hastily.

“But the men who have most to lose fight best they say; and to my thinking a soldier needs a principle as well as a weapon, if he is to do real service.”

“As the only son of a widow, you can’t be drafted:  that’s one comfort,” said Letty, who could not bear to give up the brother lost to her for so many years.

“I should not wait for that, and I know mother would give her widow’s mite if she saw that it was needed.”

“Yes, Davy.”  The soft, old voice answered steadily; but the feeble hand closed instinctively on the arm of this only son, who was so dear to her.  David held it close in both of his, saying gratefully:  “Thank you, mother;” then, fixing his eyes on the younger yet not dearer women, he added with a ring in his voice that made their hearts answer with a prompt “Ay, ay!” in spite of love or fear: 

“Now listen, you dear souls, and understand that, if I do this thing, I shall not do it hastily, nor without counting well the cost.  My first and most natural impulse was to go in the beginning; but I stayed for your sakes.  I saw I was not really needed:  I thought the war would soon be over, and those who went then could do the work.  You see how mistaken we were, and God only knows when the end will come.  The boys—­bless their brave hearts!—­have done nobly, but older men are needed now.  We cannot sacrifice all the gallant lads; and we who have more to lose than they must take our turn and try to do as well.  You own this; I see it in your faces:  then don’t hold me back when the time comes for me to go.  I must do my part, however small it is, or I shall never feel as if I deserved the love you give me.  You will let me go, I am sure, and not regret that I did what seemed to me a solemn duty, leaving the consequences to the Lord!”

“Yes, David,” sister and sweetheart answered, bravely forgetting in the fervor of the moment what heavy consequences God might see fit to send.

“Good!  I knew my Spartans would be ready, and I won’t disgrace them.  I’ve waited more than a year, and done what I could.  But all the while I felt that I was going to get a chance at the hard work, and I’ve been preparing for it.  Bennet will take the garden and green-house off my hands this autumn for a year or longer, if I like.  He’s a kind, neighborly man, and his boy will take my place about the house and protect you faithfully.  Mr. Power cannot be spared to go as chaplain, though he longs to desperately; so he is near in case of need, and with your two devoted daughters by you, mother, I surely can be spared for a little while.”