The Washington times., 1902-05-18
NONE BUT THE BRAVE--
PROLOGUE.

-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s- -s-.-s-.-.-s-.-.-.-s-.-.-.
PROLOGUE.
Lo not know why should sit here tC
write OF my earlier days. There was
nothing in them out of the ordinary
as 1 iook back at them now; nothing
put what might, and no doubt did. happen
10 many another young fellow in those
p1s days of our great fight for the right
" i've as We deemed best in this new land
across the sea. And yet those days did
'neh seem to me unusual. and / can tell
'ne youngsters that come after ME that
.here was something to be done every
hOur' and many goodly thrust of sword
ana pike to make for what was our right
anu our just due. Thank God, the long
years are gone that devastated this fair
ianu and destroyed the happiness of so
many families! And when think of the
runined towns and the thousands of
graves left by that long war cannot help
plading those who come after us to give
'heir forbears what is but their due
'he credit for making a free land with
their blood, and leaving a bit of this
green Garth where the next that come TO
IL may breathe the air of freedom.
ferhaps in this year OF our Lord, 1911,
,he grave signs of another disagreement
with Great Britain makes me want to do
my share TO ward off another fight. by
telling the men of today something of the
struggle we had thirty and more years
ago. In good truth, If the hotheads have
not care We shall I've at IL again, and no
mistake. And yet, IL the time should
again come, If a second struggle is to be
fought cut. then this hand that scratches
across the page now is not so weak nor
the heart SO sluggish. but that can take
the old sword down from my study wall
and strike another blow for the rocks and
nils and homes We worked so hard to
call cur own. back In the last century.
Let tho men of England make no mistake.
Those of us who are getting on toward
the three score of years have still the
spark in us, and we can stand up beside
the younger ones, who have come since
the old days, and mayhap show them a
point or two that came TO us from the
great Washington.
Perhaps. though, this itch Of the pen
comes only from a wish to recall those
strenuous days, when my friends and i
lived life that could not be equaled for
its constant change and its constant ac-
tion. Those were great old times, when
We saw little of the misery and much of
the famous fighting, when We worked out
hn kr.,r ~
lean.
Perhaps, yet once again, It is all to re-
call the face that is not hundred miles
from me at this moment. that has walked
and worked by my side these thirty years.
Aye. friend, If you had but known her
then-if you but knew her now-the fear
less, gentle nature that has made me
what / am, that would have made me SO
much more had / been aught
hut lump of animated clay. If
you could but have looked into
her eyes and seen what / saw! If you
could have heard her voice,-hark! can
hear it now-tbat old song somewhere
above stairs, as she goes about her daily
work of bringing up the chickens she and
/ are trying to make worthy their native
land Chickens they are no longer. but
sturdy boys and girls-men and women
they would call themselves. Yet their ia
ther, sitting here in his study looking /
out on Boston Common, could tell them 4
a tale-aye, has many a time, in part /
that would wake the brave spirit in 4
them.
Well, whatever the reason for this |
i have liking for trying it.
1t may stir up some lad. Per- |
haps Il may give a hint TO some young |
girl as 20 what a woman was in those ]
days, and should be in these. Indeed, l |
believe have II now. 'Tis the last rea-
son, to be cure: For as / walk down old |
Beacon Hill and along the Charles after |
a useless day OF voting in the House TO !
widen my neighbors street or some such I
trash, and come upon one OF .
the fairest of all Gods creations-as I |
see her walking onward in all the inno-
cence and beauty of her youth, there |
must needs come into these eyes of mine
weak tears to think that arn old, and !
vet that have seen the time when such
as she would send me smiling to my
grave could but keep her just as she is
In her fearlessness and gentleness and
youth And, indeed, If need be, can do
Il now; for fifty winters cannot so change
/ nan that he should forget that.
But, such as IT is. here is the story: