rden. What a friend,--to take away all
his sin, and leave no scar, no pain, no sorrow! He would serve such a
friend with his whole soul. He would do his duty, whatever it might be.
For such a friend, he could go through all dangers and win his way to
victory. For him he would live, and for him he would die, if need be, to
save his country.

"Go, my son,--your country calls you, and God will take care of you,"
said his mother in the morning, when he told her that he thought it his
duty to enlist.

"I have decided to be a volunteer, and shall spend a half-hour with the
school and then dismiss it, and this will be my last day as a teacher,"
said Paul to the school committee, as he went for the last time to the
school-house. It was hard to part with those who were dear to him. He
had been so kind and gentle, and yet so firm and just, that all the
scholars loved him.

"You may lay aside your books, I have not time to hear your
lessons,"--he said, and then talked of what had happened,--said that the
flag had been insulted, that justice, law, religious liberty, truth, and
right had been overthrown, and that, unless the Rebellion was put down,
they would have no country, no home,--that God and his country called
him, and he must go. The issues at stake were not only worth living for,
but they were worth dying for, if they could be secured in no other way.
It was a duty to fight for them. How hard it was to say "Good by!" They
would meet again, but perhaps not in this world. His voice trembled;
there was weeping around the room. When he dismissed them, they had no
heart to play; they could only think how good and kind he was, and how
great their loss; and in imagination, looking into the gloomy future,
beheld him in the thickest of the fight upon the battle-field.

The whole country was aflame with patriotism. The drum-beat was heard
not only in New Hope, but in every city and village of the land. There
was a flag on almost every house. Farmers left their ploughs in the
unfinished furrows; the fire of the blacksmith's forge went out;
carpenters laid down their planes; lawyers put aside their cases in the
courts,--all to become citizen soldiers and aid in saving the
country,--assembling in squads, companies, and regiments at the
county-seats.

He called upon Rev. Mr. Surplice. "The Lord be with you, to guide,
protect, and bless you," said the good man as he bade Paul farewell. It
was a blessing and a benediction which follo