Page:War; or, What happens when one loves one's enemy, John Luther Long, 1913.djvu/272

WAR but fight, when the farms were lying idle and barns tumbling down—

And then we began to know that much more of that would ruin the country beyond repair—so's any other country—which was fool enough to want it—could step in and take it—and us with it! The Johnies were fighting harder than we thought they would to get away from us, and we were fighting harder than they thought we would to keep them with us—just because they had proved such fine fellows. Well, it was like a fight between two boys—which one jokes about until the noses bleed and the eyes are bunged shut. Then it's got to stop. It's serious. But just then the boys fight the hardest, and the blindest—just about the time they got to stop on account of being played out.

I met Kratz, the editor, on the street, and I didn't know him! He was in a zouave uniform and wore a sword a yard long. Second lieutenant! 256