The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-05-05
CHAPTER VIII.

| CHATTER VIII.
! BRONSON AND KARL DECIDE TO ENLIST
WALTER TAKES THE MATTER INTO
CONSIDERATION AND CONCLUDES TIC
DO LIKEwIsE-DEPARTURE OF TIKI
FIRST TROOPS FOR THE wAR-THE
THREE ENLIST.
"Boys, / enlist tomorrow morningl'
said Bronson, suddenly, as the three
disengaged themselves from the dispers
ing crowd, and started on their way
home.
"Pn go wit ye." said Karl i'm.
pulsively.
"But how about your wife and child
and home said Walter anxiously.
He wondered if the excitement of the
evening had made Bronson forget these
customary anchors to withhold men from
following cratic inclinations.
90, Susy and have settled all that, !"
said Bronson, without a tremor in his
firm voice. eve talked it over last
night, and agreed what we should do.
Susys a brave girl, and her hearts as
much in this cause as mine is. She would
not have me stay at home, if other men
20. We have concluded all our arrange
ments. We are to break up housekeep-
ing, pack our things, and she'll 60 to her
fathers in the country, to stay while I'm
gone. And she'll not be left destitute
if I don't come back, either. l have
held the ad. cases * on the Ne,us now
for nearly three years, and they've run
mighty we'll, SO that I've got about
LOO laid up for rainy day, besides
$4,000 insurance on my life, taken out
the day after cur baby was born
"Have you any idea where you will
enlist?" asked Walter.
go, no; I'll let chance take care Of
that, as it has to of almost everything in
war. All regiments will be about the
same when we get to the front, any
way"
With this the three arrived at the,
point where their paths diverged, and
they separated, promising to meet at the
Neses office in the morning.
Walter was glad to lose their COM
pany, for he wanted to be alone. Much
disturbed by vlfe gravest problem which
had yet confronted him, he desired alb
solute non-interference by anyone else
while his mind was working out its go
luton. Thotgh very frank and sympa-
thetic by nature, he was still strongly
individual in his habits of thought, and
could not bring himself to survey the
situation with any other eyes than his
own.
1t was we'll enough for Bronson and
Karl to decide for themselves, but he
could not accept their decision for bis
own case. His years Of selfdependence
had cut all the tendrils of control by
which boys OF his age are usually gov
erned, and to which they look for guild
ance. Leaving the paternal nest when
| scarcely half fedged, necessity had
| taught his infant pinions each progressive
step in the act of flying, and he had
learned to consider his instinct as to that
necessity his only teacher. And so, now,
he did not 90 to anyone else to ask what
he should do; he would only ask
himself.
Apparently as sunny and free as a
Summer day, there were yet depths in
his nature which no one ever sounded,
because no one suspected that they were
there. The reasons and motives which
controlled his life lay hidden in these,
and their presence was not even guessed
at by those who knew him best.
While the same glow of patriotic en-
thusiasm that heated others electrified
him, he was far from surrendering him
self wholly to it, and, boy though he
was, he resolved to debate the matter
carefully before arriving at conclusion.
| This must be done before he met Bron-
son and Karl in the morning, because
then he must be prepared to say
definitely whether he would go with
them or not.
He began by arranging the conflicting
considerations in what seemed to be
their logical sequence, that those oppos-
ing each other might be weighed to-
gether and their preponderance de-
termined. This was the result:
81 am told that it is the duty of
every young man to go, and feel that
this is SO. But
"To do so will be to renounce the
plan Of my life that | have marked out,
and which l have worked 50 hard and
endured SO much to carry out, and
which seems now just about to succeed.
1t seems to me that | would much
rather die than give that plan up.
"Then, have no warlike tastes. l
never loved fighting, or wanted to be in
rows. | have never been any more OF
coward thano the other boys; l was
always williag to take about as many
chances as anybody else, but ! am very
much afraid rof death the thought of
dying or being killed always make me
shudder, and [ am very much afraid
that | have none of the stuff in me
that makes q soldier.
Great Heavens | know l could
never stand it to be fred at with great
cannons loaded with grape and canister