Neither of us spoke, but when the last gleam had died out in the
window of the stone church we went straight to the company's store
and gave up our picks. I have never set foot in a coal mine since,
and have not the least desire to do so.
I was back in the harness of the carpenter-shop when, in the
middle of July, the news struck down in our quiet community like
a bombshell that France had declared war on Prussia; also that
Denmark was expected to join her forces to those of her old ally
and take revenge for the great robbery of 1864. I dropped my tools
the moment I heard it, and flew rather than ran to the company's
office to demand my time; thence to our boarding-house to pack.
Adler reasoned and entreated, called it an insane notion, but,
when he saw that nothing would stop me, lent a hand in stuffing
my trunk, praying pathetically between pulls that his countrymen
would make short work of me, as they certainly would of France. I
heeded nothing. All the hot blood of youth was surging through me.
I remembered the defeat, the humiliation of the flag I loved,--aye!
and love yet, for there is no flag like the flag of my fathers,
save only that of my children and of my manhood,--and I remembered,
too, Elizabeth, with a sudden hope.
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