voice
within which called him to look upon the courage of a girl. They were
driving him mad. He turned toward the open country, walking fast, but as
one who walks in sleep. Many tried to stop him, to congratulate him on
the good fortune of being a captain, but he rudely passed with scarcely
a word. Some looked after him, and a few complained rather knowingly:

"That's the trouble with militarism; it makes the officers so stuck up!"

On and on he went, to the wood where he had killed imaginary Germans;
and there, throwing himself on the ground, he began to fight another, a
very much more real battle.

In the meanwhile, long before the courthouse clock struck the hour of
noon, the Colonel had filled many pages of his ledger. Marian and her
father had come down, being afraid to leave each other during these last
few hours they would have together. The Colonel had told of Jeb's brief
visit, adding his own belief that the lad had gone out to the Strong
residence; and Marian took a seat by the window, where she could watch
the street and at the same time greet each recruit who entered to put
his name down on the company roster.

Despite the nearness of her departure, Mr. Strong and Colonel Hampton
were almost joyous as they noted the happy, though firm, looks of
determination radiating from the faces of men who came in streams to
offer the best they had.

The barber's assistant followed Hillsdale's most promising young lawyer;
the driver of Hincky's grocery wagon reached the door simultaneously
with the rising banker, and Mr. Strong felt a catch of pleasure at his
throat when the financier, stepping aside and putting a hand on the
driver's shoulder, said:

"After you, old fellow!"

An Italian bootblack from the hotel-stand looked in, asking shyly:

"You tak'a me?"

A woman in a faded dress brought her husky lad who twisted his hat with
awkward fingers.

"He ain't quite twenty-one," she said, in a low voice, "so I come to
give consent. He wants to go, thank God!--an' I can git along."

Colonel Hampton sprang up and embraced them both in one sweep of his
long arms; and, when the woman cried a little, Marian soothed her with
endearing words of praise.

Hillsdale, one way or another, was responding to its country's need.
During the day the recruiting list grew past the four-hundred mark--but,
although Marian's eyes grew tired gazing down upon those who were coming
and going in the street, nowhere did she get a gli