Page:War; or, What happens when one loves one's enemy, John Luther Long, 1913.djvu/349

THE PITY OF IT "Because, from now on, it is absolutely certain that the Union will win."

"Excuse me, suh!" says the soldier.

"Why, my dear boy, we have twenty men to your one in the field now and more coming all the time. We have a thousand dollars to your one. We have now an army of more than a million of seasoned veterans instead of the greenhorns we began with. We have, at last, and the way has been long and fearful, found the right men to lead the armies."

"Suh," said the young soldier, "right is might and must prevail."

"My boy, even if you are right, you will be crushed, overwhelmed, by mere weight, if nothing else. And, if you are to be vanquished in the end, why not stop now and save the thousands upon thousands of young men like you who will yet be killed, for their mothers and wives and sweethearts? Go. Do as you like. I ask no promises. But, it would make me mighty glad to know that out of the slaughter which must yet be I had saved a fine boy like 333