of
which on the pavement makes those who pass turn to look.

At the sight of this ancient wreck from our patriotic wars, the greater
number shake their heads in pity, and I seem to hear a sigh or an
imprecation.

"See the worth of glory!" says a portly merchant, turning away his eyes
in horror.

"What a deplorable use of human life!" rejoins a young man who carries a
volume of philosophy under his arm.

"The trooper would better not have left his plow," adds a countryman,
with a cunning air.

"Poor old man!" murmurs a woman, almost crying.

The veteran has heard, and he knits his brow; for it seems to him that
his guide has grown thoughtful. The latter, attracted by what he hears
around him, hardly answers the old man's questions, and his eyes, vaguely
lost in space, seem to be seeking there for the solution of some problem.

I seem to see a twitching in the gray moustaches of the veteran; he stops
abruptly, and, holding back his guide with his remaining arm:

"They all pity me," says he, "because they do not understand it; but if I
were to answer them--"

"What would you say to them, father?" asks the young man, with curiosity.

"I should say first to the woman who weeps when she looks at me, to keep
her tears for other misfortunes; for each of my wounds calls to mind some
struggle for my colors. There is room for doubting how some men have done
their duty; with me it is visible. I carry the account of my services,
written with the enemy's steel and lead, on myself; to pity me for having
done my duty is to suppose I would better have been false to it."

"And what would you say to the countryman, father?"

"I should tell him that, to drive the plow in peace, we must first secure
the country itself; and that, as long as there are foreigners ready to
eat our harvest, there must be arms to defend it."

"But the young student, too, shook his head when he lamented such a use
of life."

"Because he does not know what self-sacrifice and suffering can teach.
The books that he studies we have put in practice, though we never read
them: the principles he applauds we have defended with powder and
bayonet."

"And at the price of your limbs and your blood. The merchant said, when
he saw your maimed body, 'See the worth of glory!"'

"Do not believe him, my son: the true glory is the bread of the soul; it
is this which nourishes self-sacrifice, patience, and courage. The Master
of all has bestowed it as a tie the m