FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275  
276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   >>   >|  
ind that Dryfoos had an old rankling shame in his heart for not having gone into the war, and that he had often made that explanation of his course without having ever been satisfied with it. He felt sorry for him; the fact seemed pathetic; it suggested a dormant nobleness in the man. Beaton was saying to Fulkerson: "You might get a series of sketches by substitutes; the substitutes haven't been much heard from in the war literature. How would 'The Autobiography of a Substitute' do? You might follow him up to the moment he was killed in the other man's place, and inquire whether he had any right to the feelings of a hero when he was only hired in the place of one. Might call it 'The Career of a Deputy Hero.'" "I fancy," said March, "that there was a great deal of mixed motive in the men who went into the war as well as in those who kept out of it. We canonized all that died or suffered in it, but some of them must have been self-seeking and low-minded, like men in other vocations." He found himself saying this in Dryfoos's behalf; the old man looked at him gratefully at first, he thought, and then suspiciously. Lindau turned his head toward him and said: "You are righdt, Passil; you are righdt. I haf zeen on the fieldt of pattle the voarst eggsipitions of human paseness--chelousy, fanity, ecodistic bridte. I haf zeen men in the face off death itself gofferned by motifes as low as--as pusiness motifes." "Well," said Fulkerson, "it would be a grand thing for 'Every Other Week' if we could get some of those ideas worked up into a series. It would make a lot of talk." Colonel Woodburn ignored him in saying, "I think, Major Lindau--" "High brifate; prefet gorporal," the old man interrupted, in rejection of the title. Hendricks laughed and said, with a glance of appreciation at Lindau, "Brevet corporal is good." Colonel Woodburn frowned a little, and passed over the joke. "I think Mr. Lindau is right. Such exhibitions were common to both sides, though if you gentlemen will pardon me for saying so, I think they were less frequent on ours. We were fighting more immediately for existence. We were fewer than you were, and we knew it; we felt more intensely that if each were not for all, then none was for any." The colonel's words made their impression. Dryfoos said, with authority, "That is so." "Colonel Woodburn," Fulkerson called out, "if you'll work up those ideas into a short paper--say, three thousand
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275  
276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Lindau
 

Fulkerson

 

Woodburn

 
Colonel
 
Dryfoos
 
motifes
 

righdt

 

substitutes

 

series

 

bridte


gorporal
 
rejection
 

prefet

 

interrupted

 

brifate

 

pusiness

 

worked

 

gofferned

 

intensely

 

colonel


fighting
 

immediately

 

existence

 
thousand
 

impression

 
authority
 
called
 

frequent

 

frowned

 

passed


corporal

 

Brevet

 
Hendricks
 
laughed
 

glance

 
appreciation
 

gentlemen

 

pardon

 

ecodistic

 

exhibitions


common

 

minded

 
Substitute
 

follow

 
moment
 
Autobiography
 

literature

 

killed

 
inquire
 

feelings