e spoke in whispers; but from occasional
conversations I gleaned scraps of private history, which only added to
the affection and respect I felt for him. Once he asked me to write a
letter, and, as I settled with pen and paper, I said, with an
irrepressible glimmer of female curiosity, "Shall it be addressed to
mother or wife, John?"

"Neither, ma'am: I've got no wife, and will write to mother, myself,
when I get better. Did you think I was married because of this?" he
asked, touching a plain gold ring he wore, and often turned
thoughtfully on his finger when he lay alone.

"Partly that, but more from a settled sort of look you have--a look
young men seldom get until they marry."

"I don't know that; but I'm not so very young, ma'am--thirty in May,
and have been what you might call settled these ten years, for
mother's a widow. I'm the oldest child she has, and it wouldn't do for
me to marry till Lizzie has a home of her own, and Laurie has learned
his trade; for we're not rich, and I must be father to the children,
and husband to the dear old woman, if I can."

"No doubt you are both, John; yet how came you to go to the war, if
you felt so? Wasn't enlisting as bad as marrying?"

"No, ma'am, not as I see it; for one is helping my neighbor, the other
pleasing myself. I went because I couldn't help it. I didn't want the
glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done, and the people said
the men who were in earnest ought to fight. I was in earnest, the Lord
knows; but I held off as long as I could, not knowing what was my
duty. Mother saw the case, gave me her ring to keep me steady, and
said 'Go;' so I went."

A short story, and a simple one; but the man and the mother were
portrayed better than pages of fine writing could have done it.

A SOLDIER'S PRIDE.

"Do you ever regret that you came, when you lie here suffering so
much?"

"Never, ma'am. I haven't helped a great deal, but I've shown I was
willing to give my life, and perhaps I've got to; but I don't blame
any body, and if it was to do over again, I'd do it. I'm a little
sorry I wasn't wounded in front. It looks cowardly to be hit in the
back; but I obeyed orders, and it don't matter much in the end, I
know."

Poor John! it did not matter now, except that a shot in front might
have spared the long agony in store for him. He seemed to read the
thought that troubled me, as he spoke so hopefully when there was no
hope, for he suddenly added:

"This i