Page:War; or, What happens when one loves one's enemy, John Luther Long, 1913.djvu/200

WAR lived among you all my life. I was born here. And you are going to send me out alone. You are going to let me say to Father Abraham—'Father, I come alone. They were tried and found wanting! There were more than two thousand strong men listening to me as I told them how badly you needed only one hundred of them in this the darkest hour of your war. Yet, out of that host, not one was burning to write his name upon his country's roll of glory!"

All stood mute.

"Not one was ready to die that his country might live undivided. All were willing that those who have already died in this great cause, shall have died in vain. All were willing that the glorious fruits of victory, just within our grasp, for a final great effort, shall be handed over to the enemy.' Come! I ask you for the last time, is there not one—but one!—who will put his name here with mine?"

It was quieter than ever while he waited, and he drooped his head and was turning away, 184