of Duty. That voice summons me
now."

"God in heaven," I thought, "you have given us this child only to take
him from us!"

But then came the second thought: "Steady, Reuben! You are a man; _be_
a man! Steady, Reuben; be a man!"

"Yer mother," sez I, "yer mother--it will break her heart!"

"She leaves it all to you, father."

"But--the other--the other, Cyrus--leetle Lizzie--ye know!"

"She is content," sez he.

A storm swep' through me like a cyclone. It wuz all Bill's fault; that
warrior-name had done it all--the cyclopeedy with its lies had pizened
Bill's mind to put this trouble on me an' mine!

No, no, a thousand times no! These wuz coward feelin's an' they
misbecome me; the ache herein this heart uv mine had no business there.
The better part uv me called to me an' said: "Pull yourself together,
Reuben Ketcham, and be a man!"

Well, after he went away, leetle Lizzie wuz more to us 'n ever before;
wuz at our house all the time; called Lizzie "mother"; wuz contented,
in her woman's way, willin' to do her part, waitin' an' watchin' an'
prayin' for him to come back. They sent him boxes of good things every
fortnight, mother an' leetle Lizzie did; there wuz n't a minute uv the
day that they wuz n't talkin' or thinkin' uv him.

Well--ye--see--I must tell it my own way--he got killed. In the very
first battle Cyrus got killed. The rest uv the soldiers turnt to
retreat, because there wuz too many for 'em on the other side. But
Cyrus stood right up; he wuz the warrior Bill allowed he wuz goin' to
be; our boy wuz n't the kind to run. They tell me there wuz bullet
holes here, an' here, an' here--all over his breast. We always knew
our boy wuz a hero!

Ye can thank God ye wuz n't at the 'jinin' farms when the news come
that he 'd got killed. The neighbors, they were there, of course, to
kind uv hold us up an' comfort us. Bill an' I sot all day in the
woodshed, holdin' hands an' lookin' away from each other, so; never
said a word; jest sot there, sympathizin' an' holdin' hands. If we 'd
been women, Bill an' I would uv cried an' beat our forrids an' hung
round each other's neck, like the womenfolks done. Bein' we wuz men,
we jest set there in the woodshed, away from all the rest, holdin'
hands an' sympathizin'.

From that time on, leetle Lizzie wuz our daughter--our very daughter,
all that wuz left to us uv our boy. She never shed a tear; crep' like
a shadder 'round the house an' up the front wa