e. How grand over war and hate were
the thoughts of peace and love! And yet every foot of this beautiful
land must be bought with a price. No matter where the great blame lies,
nor who sinned first in getting formal possession, the real occupation
is won only by sacrifice. And I was confronted with my part of the
offering. Strange thoughts come in such an hour. Sitting there in the
twilight, I asked myself why I should want to live; and I realized how
strong, after all, was the tie that bound me to Springvale; how under
all my pretence of beginning a new life I had not really faced the
future separated from the girl I loved. And then I remembered that it
would mean nothing serious to her how this campaign ended. Oh! I was in
the crucible now. I must prove myself the thing I always meant to be.
God knew the heroic spirit I needed that lonely September night. As I
sat looking out toward the west the years of my boyhood came back to me,
and then I remembered O'mie's words when he told me of his struggle:

"It was to save a woman, Phil. He could only kill me. He wouldn't have
been that good to her. You'd have done the same to save any woman, aven
a stranger to you. Wait an' see."

I thought of the two women in the Solomon Valley, whom Black Kettle's
band had dragged from their homes, tortured inhumanly, and at last
staked out hand and foot on the prairie to die in agony under pitiless
skies.

"When the day av choosin' comes," O'mie said, "we can't do no more 'n to
take our places. We all do it. When you git face to face with a thing
like that, somehow the everlastin' arms Dr. Hemingway preaches about is
strong underneath you."

Oh, blessed O'mie! Had he told me that to give me courage in my hour of
shrinking? Wherever he was to-night I knew his heart was with me, who so
little deserved the love he gave me. At last I rolled myself snugly in
my blanket, for the September evenings are cold in Colorado. The simple
prayers of childhood came back to me, and I repeated the "Now I lay me"
I used to say every night at Aunt Candace's knee. It had a wonderful
meaning to me to-night. And once more I thought of O'mie and how his
thin hand gripped mine when he said: "Most av all, don't niver forgit
it, Phil, when the thing comes to you, aven in your strength. Most av
all, above all sufferin', and natural longin' to live, there comes the
reality av them words Aunt Candace taught us: 'Though I walk through the
valley av the shadow av d