"And now I shall go back to the very beginning, and tell you how it all
happened. Your father was only a boy when the Civil War broke out. He
came down from Massachusetts with a regiment which had in it the blood
of the farmers who fired the shot heard round the world--. He felt
that he was fighting for Freedom--he had all of your ideals, Derry;
plus, perhaps, a few of his own.
"You know how the war dragged, four years of it--and much of the time
that Massachusetts regiment was in swamp and field, on the edge of
fever-breeding streams, never very well fed, cold in winter, hot in
summer.
"They were given for medicine quinine and--whiskey. It kept them
alive. Sometimes it kept them warm, sometimes it lifted them above
reality and granted them a moment's reckless happiness.
"It was all wrong, of course. I am making no plea for its rightness;
and it unchained wild beasts in some of the men. Your father for many
years kept his chained, but the beasts were there.
"He was almost fifty when I married him, and he was not a General.
That title was given to him during the Spanish War. I was twenty when
I came here a bride.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90