Crittenden | Page 6

smiled and went on bravely:
"And you?"
Crittenden, too, smiled.

"I may consider it my duty to stay at home."
The girl looked rather surprised--instead of showing the subdued
sarcasm that he was looking for--and, in truth, she was. His evasive and
careless answer showed an indifference to her wish and opinion in the
matter that would once have been very unusual. Straightway there was
a tug at her heart-strings that also was unusual.
The people were gathering into the open-air auditorium now and, from
all over the camp, the crowd began to move that way. All knew the
word of the orator's mouth and the word of the editor--they had heard
the one and seen the other on his printed page many times; and it was
for this reason, perhaps, that Crittenden's fresh fire thrilled and swayed
the crowd as it did.
When he rose, he saw his mother almost under him and, not far behind
her, Judith with her father, Judge Page. The lieutenant of regulars was
standing on the edge of the crowd, and to his right was Grafton, also
standing, with his hat under his arm--idly curious. But it was to his
mother that he spoke and, steadfastly, he saw her strong, gentle face
even when he was looking far over her head, and he knew that she
knew that he was arguing the point then and there between them.
It was, he said, the first war of its kind in history. It marked an epoch in
the growth of national character since the world began. As an American,
he believed that no finger of mediævalism should so much as touch this
hemisphere. The Cubans had earned their freedom long since, and the
cries of starving women and children for the bread which fathers and
brothers asked but the right to earn must cease. To put out of mind the
Americans blown to death at Havana--if such a thing were possible--he
yet believed with all his heart in the war. He did not think there would
be much of a fight--the regular army could doubtless take good care of
the Spaniard--but if everybody acted on that presumption, there would
be no answer to the call for volunteers. He was proud to think that the
Legion of his own State, that in itself stood for the reunion of the North
and the South, had been the first to spring to arms. And he was proud to
think that not even they were the first Kentuckians to fight for Cuban
liberty. He was proud that, before the Civil War even, a Kentuckian of

his own name and blood had led a band of one hundred and fifty brave
men of his own State against Spanish tyranny in Cuba, and a Crittenden,
with fifty of his followers, were captured and shot in platoons of six.
"A Kentuckian kneels only to woman and his God," this Crittenden had
said proudly when ordered to kneel blindfolded and with his face to the
wall, "and always dies facing his enemy." And so those Kentuckians
had died nearly half a century before, and he knew that the young
Kentuckians before him would as bravely die, if need be, in the same
cause now; and when they came face to face with the Spaniard they
would remember the shattered battle-ship in the Havana harbour, and
something more--they would remember Crittenden. And then the
speaker closed with the words of a certain proud old Confederate
soldier to his son:
"No matter who was right and who was wrong in the Civil War, the
matter is settled now by the sword. The Constitution left the question
open, but it is written there now in letters of blood. We have given our
word that they shall stand; and remember it is the word of gentlemen
and binding on their sons. There have been those in the North who have
doubted that word; there have been those in the South who have given
cause for doubt; and this may be true for a long time. But if ever the
time comes to test that word, do you be the first to prove it. You will
fight for your flag--mine now as well as yours--just as sincerely as I
fought against it." And these words, said Crittenden in a trembling
voice, the brave gentleman spoke again on his death-bed; and now, as
he looked around on the fearless young faces about him, he had no
need to fear that they were spoken in vain.
And so the time was come for the South to prove its loyalty--not to
itself nor to the North, but to the world.
Under him he saw his mother's eyes fill with tears, for these words of
her son were the dying words of her lion-hearted husband.