When Colonel Butler declared his intention of going to New York and
Washington to consult with his friends about the great war, to urge
active participation in it by the United States, and to offer to the
proper authorities, his services as a military expert and commander,
his daughter protested vigorously. It was absurd, she declared, for
him, at his age, to think of doing anything of the kind; utterly
preposterous and absurd. But he would not listen to her. His mind was
made up, and she was entirely unable to divert him from his purpose.
"Then I shall go with you," she declared.
"May I ask," he inquired, "what your object is in wishing to accompany
me?"
"Because you're not fit to go alone. You're too old and feeble, and
something might happen to you."
He turned on her a look of infinite scorn.
"Age," he replied, "is no barrier to patriotism. A man's obligation to
serve his country is not measured by his years. I have never been more
capable of taking the field against an enemy of civilization than I am
at this moment. To suggest that I am not fit to travel unless
accompanied by a female member of my family falls little short of
being gross disrespect. I shall go alone."
Again she protested, but she was utterly unable to swerve him a hair's
breadth from his determination and purpose. So she was obliged to see
him start off by himself on his useless and Quixotic errand. She knew
that he would return disappointed, saddened, doubly depressed, and ill
both in body and mind.
Since Pen's abrupt departure to seek a home with his Grandpa Walker,
Colonel Butler had not been so obedient to his daughter's wishes. He
had changed in many respects. He had grown old, white-haired, feeble
and despondent. He was often ill at ease, and sometimes morose. That
he grieved over the boy's absence there was not a shadow of doubt. Yet
he would not permit the first suggestion of a reconciliation that did
not involve the humble application of his grandson to be forgiven and
taken back. But such an application was not made. The winter days went
by, spring blossomed into summer, season followed season, and not yet
had the master of Bannerhall seen coming down the long, gray road to
the old home the figure of a sorrowful and suppliant boy.
When the world war began, his mind was diverted to some extent from
his sorrow. From the beginning his sympathies had been with the
Allies. Old soldier that he was he could not denounce with sufficient
bitterness the spirit of militarism that seemed to have run rampant
among the Central Powers. At the invasion of Belgium and at the
mistreatment of her people, especially of her women and children, at
the bombardment of the cathedral of Rheims, at the sinking of the
_Lusitania_, at the execution of Edith Cavell, at all the outrages of
which German militarism was guilty, he grew more and more indignant
and denunciatory. His sense of fairness, his spirit of chivalry, his
ideas of honorable warfare and soldierly conduct were inexpressibly
shocked. The murder of sleeping women and children in country villages
by the dropping of bombs from airships, the suffocation of brave
soldiers by the use of deadly gases, the hurling of liquid fire into
the ranks of a civilized enemy; these things stirred him to the
depths. He talked of the war by day, he dreamed of it at night. He
chafed bitterly at the apparent attempt of the Government at
Washington to preserve the neutrality of this country against the most
provoking wrongs. It was our war, he declared, as much as it was the
war of any nation in Europe, and it was our duty to get into it for
the sake of humanity, at the earliest possible moment and at any cost.
His intense feeling and profound conviction in the matter led finally
to his determination to make the trip to New York and Washington in
order to present his views and make his recommendations, and to offer
his services in person, in quarters where he believed they would be
welcomed and acted on. So he went on what appeared to his daughter to
be the most preposterous errand he had ever undertaken.
He returned even sooner than she had expected him to come. In response
to his telegram she sent the carriage to the station to meet him on
the arrival of the afternoon train. When she heard the rumbling of the
wheels outside she went to the door, knowing that it would require her
best effort to cheerfully welcome the disappointed, dejected and
enfeebled old man. Then she had the surprise of her life. Colonel
Butler alighted from the carriage and mounted the porch steps with the
elasticity of youth. He was travel-stained and weary, indeed; but his
face, from which half the wrinkles seemed to have disappeared, was
beaming with happiness. He kissed his daughter, and, with
old-fashioned courtesy, conducted her to a porch chair. In her mind
there could be but one explanation for his extraordinary appearance
and conduct; the purpose of his journey had been accomplished and his
last absurd wish had been gratified.
"I suppose," she said, with a sigh, "they have agreed to adopt your
plans, and take you back into the army."
"Into the what, my dear?"
"Into the army. Didn't you go to Washington for the purpose of getting
back into service?"
"Why, yes. I believe I did. Pardon me, but, in view of matters of much
greater importance, the result of this particular effort had slipped
my mind."
"Matters of greater importance?"
"Yes. I was about to inform you that while I was in New York I
unexpectedly ran across my grandson, Master Penfield Butler."
She sat up with a look of surprise and apprehension in her eyes.
"Ran across Pen? What was he doing there?"
"He was on his way to Canada to join those forces of the Dominion
Government which will eventually sail for France, and help to free
that unhappy country from the heel of the barbarian."
"You mean--?"
"I mean that Penfield was to enlist, has doubtless now already
enlisted, with the Canadian troops which, after a period of drilling
at home, will enter the war on the firing line in northern France."
"Well, for goodness sake!" It was all that Aunt Millicent could say,
and when she had said that she practically collapsed.
"Yes," he rejoined, "he felt as did I, that the time had come for
American citizens, both old and young, with red blood in their veins,
to spill that blood, if necessary, in fighting for the liberty of the
world. Patriotism, duty, the spirit of his ancestors, called him, and
he has gone."
Colonel Butler was radiant. His eyes were aglow with enthusiasm. His
own recommendations for national conduct had gone unheeded indeed, and
his own offer of military service had been civilly declined; but these
facts were of small moment compared with the proud knowledge that a
young scion of his race was about to carry the family traditions and
prestige into the battle front of the greatest war for liberty that
the world had ever known.
In Pen's second letter home from Canada he told of the arrival and
enlistment of Aleck Sands, and of the complete blotting out of the old
feud that had existed between them. Later on he wrote them, in many
letters, all about his barrack life, and of how contented and happy he
was, and how eagerly he was looking forward to the day when he and his
comrades should cross the water to those countries where the great war
was a reality. The letter that he wrote the day before he sailed was
filled with the brightness of enthusiasm and the joy of anticipation.
And while the long period of drill on English soil became somewhat
irksome to him, as one reading between the lines could readily
discover, he made no direct complaint. It was simply a part of the
game. But it was when he had reached the front, and his letters
breathed the sternness of the conflict and echoed the thunder of the
guns, that he was at his best in writing. Mere salutations some of
them were, written from the trenches by the light of a dug-out candle,
but they pulsated with patriotism and heroism and a determination to
live up to the best traditions of a soldier's career.
Colonel Butler devoured every scrap of news that came from the front
in the half dozen papers that he read daily. He kept in close touch
with the international situation, he fumed constantly at the
inactivity of his own government in view of her state of
unpreparedness for a war into which she must sooner or later be
inevitably plunged. He lost all patience with what he considered the
timidity of the President, and what he called the stupidity of
congress. Was not the youngest and the reddest and the best of the
Butler blood at the fighting line, ready at any moment to be spilled
to the death on the altar of the world's liberty? Why then should the
government of the United States sit supinely by and see the finest
young manhood of her own and other lands fighting and perishing in the
cause of humanity when, by voicing the conscience of her people, and
declaring and making war on the Central Powers, she could most
effectually aid in bringing to a speedy and victorious end this
monstrous example of modern barbarism? Why, indeed!
One day Colonel Butler suggested to his daughter that she go up to
Lowbridge and again inquire whether Pen's mother had any needs of any
kind that he could possibly supply.
"And," he added, "I wish you to invite her to Bannerhall for a visit
of indefinite duration. In these trying and critical times my
daughter-in-law's place is in the ancestral home of her deceased
husband."
Aunt Millicent, delighted with the purport of her mission, went up to
Lowbridge and extended the invitation, and, with all the eloquence at
her command, urged its acceptance. But Sarah Butler was unyielding and
would not come. She had been wounded too deeply in years gone by.
So spring came, and blade, leaf and flower sprang into beautiful and
rejoicing existence. No one had ever before seen the orchard trees so
superbly laden with blossoms. No one had ever before seen a brighter
promise of a more bountiful season. And the country was still at
peace, enriching herself with a mintage coined of blood and sorrow
abroad, though drifting aimlessly and ever closer to the verge of
war.
There was a time early in July when, for two weeks, no letter came
from Pen. The suspense was almost unbearable. For days Colonel Butler
haunted the post-office. His self-assurance left him, his confident
and convincing voice grew weak, a haunting fear of what news might
come was with him night and day.
At last he received a letter from abroad. It was from Pen, addressed
in his own hand-writing. The colonel himself took it from his box at
the post-office in the presence of a crowd of his neighbors and
friends awaiting the distribution of their mail. It was scrawled in
pencil on paper that had never been intended to be used for
correspondence purposes.
Pen had just learned, he wrote, that the messenger who carried a
former letter from the trenches for him had been killed en route by an
exploding shell, and the contents of his mail pouch scattered and
destroyed. Moreover he had been very busy. Fighting had been brisk,
there had been a good many casualties in his company, but he himself,
save for some superficial wounds received on the Fourth of July, was
unhurt and reasonably well.
"I am sorry to report, however," the letter continued, "that my
comrade, Aleck Sands, has been severely wounded. We were engaged
in a brisk assault on the enemy's lines on the Fourth of July, and
captured some of their trenches. During the engagement Aleck
received a bayonet wound in the shoulder, and a badly battered
knee. I was able to help him off the field and to an ambulance. I
believe he is somewhere now in a hospital not far to the rear of
us. I mean to see him soon if I can find out where he is and get
leave. Tell his folks that he fought like a hero. I never saw a
braver man in battle.
"You will be glad to learn that since the engagement on the fourth
I have been made a sergeant, 'for conspicuous bravery in action,'
the order read.
"I suppose the flag is flying on the school-house staff these
days. How I would like to see it. If I could only see the Stars
and Stripes over here, and our own troops under it, I should be
perfectly happy. The longer I fight here the more I'm convinced
that the cause we're fighting for is a just and glorious one, and
the more willing I am to die for it.
"Give my dear love to Aunt Milly. I have just written to mother.
"Your affectionate grandson,
"Penfield Butler."
Colonel Butler looked up from the reading with moist eyes and glowing
face, to find a dozen of his townsmen who knew that the letter had
come, waiting to hear news from Pen.
"On Independence Day," said the colonel, in answer to their inquiries,
"he participated in a gallant and bloody assault on the enemy's lines,
in which many trenches were taken. Save for superficial wounds, easily
healed in the young and vigorous, he came out of the melee unscathed."
"Good for him!" exclaimed one.
"Bravo!" shouted another.
"And, gentlemen," the colonel's voice rose and swelled moderately as
he proceeded, "I am proud to say that, following that engagement, my
grandson, for conspicuous bravery in action, was promoted to the rank
of sergeant in the colonial troops of Great Britain."
"Splendid!"
"He's the boy!"
"We're proud of him!"
The colonel's eyes were flashing now; his head was erect, his one hand
was thrust into the bosom of his waistcoat.
"I thank you, gentlemen!" he said, "on behalf of my grandson. To pass
inherited patriotism from father to son, from generation to
generation, and to see it find its perfect fulfillment in the latest
scion of the race, is to live in the golden age, gentlemen, and to
partake of the fountain of youth."
His voice quavered a little at the end, and he waited for a moment to
recover it, and possibly to give his eloquence an opportunity to sink
in more deeply, and then he continued:
"I regret to say, gentlemen, that in the fierce engagement of the
fourth instant, my grandson's gallant comrade, Master Alexander Sands,
was severely wounded both in the shoulder and the knee, and is now
somewhere in a hospital in northern France, well back of the lines,
recuperating from his injuries. I shall communicate this information
at once to his parents, together with such encouragement as is
contained in my grandson's letter."
Proud as a king, he turned from the sympathetic group, entered his
carriage and was driven toward Chestnut Valley.
It was late in September when Aleck Sands came home. The family at
Bannerhall, augmented within the last year by the addition of Colonel
Butler's favorite niece, was seated at the supper table one evening
when Elmer Cuddeback, now grown into a fine, stalwart youth, hurried
in to announce the arrival.
"I happened to be at the station when Aleck came," he said. "He looked
like a skeleton and a ghost rolled into one. He couldn't walk at all,
and he was just able to talk. But he said he'd been having a fine time
and was feeling bully. Isn't that nerve for you?"
"Splendid!" exclaimed the colonel, holding his napkin high in the air
in his excitement. "A marvelous young man! I shall do myself the honor
to call on him in person to-morrow morning, and compliment him on his
bravery, and congratulate him on his escape from mortal injury."
He was as good as his word. He and his daughter both went down to
Cherry Valley and called on Aleck Sands. He was lying propped up in
bed, attended by a thankful and devoted mother, trying to give rest to
a tired and irritated body, and to enjoy once more the sights and
sounds of home. He was too weak to do much talking, but almost his
first words were an anxious inquiry about Pen. They told him what they
knew.
"He came to see me at the hospital in August," said Aleck. "It was
like a breeze from heaven. If he doesn't come back here alive and well
at the end of this war, with the Victoria Cross on his breast, I shall
be ashamed to go out on the street; he is so much the braver soldier
and the better man of the two of us."
"He has written to us," said the colonel, and his eyes were moist, and
his voice choked a little as he spoke, "that you, yourself, in the
matter of courage in battle, upheld the best traditions of American
bravery, and I am proud of you, sir, as are all of your townsmen."
The colonel would have remained to listen to further commendation of
his grandson, and to discuss with one who had actually been on the
fighting line, the conditions under which the war was being waged;
but his daughter, seeing that the boy needed rest, brought the visit
to a speedy close.
"Give my love to Pen when you write to him," said Aleck, as he bade
them good-by; "the bravest soldier--and the dearest comrade--that ever
carried a gun."
After the winter holidays a week went by with no letter from Pen. The
colonel began to grow anxious, but it was not until the end of the
second week that he really became alarmed. And when three weeks had
gone by, and neither the mails nor the cable nor the wireless had
brought any news of the absent soldier, Colonel Butler was on the
verge of despair. He had haunted the post-office as before, he had
made inquiry at the state department at Washington, he had telegraphed
to Canada for information, but nothing came of it all. Aleck Sands had
heard absolutely nothing. Pen's mother, almost beside herself,
telephoned every day to Bannerhall for news, and received none. The
strain of apprehensive waiting became almost unbearable for them all.
One day, unable longer to withstand the heart-breaking tension, the
old patriot sent an agent post-haste to Toronto, with instructions to
spare no effort and no expense in finding out what had become of his
grandson.
Three days later, from his agent came a telegram reading as follows:
"Lieutenant Butler in hospital near Rouen. Wound severe. Suffering
now from pneumonia. Condition serious but still hopeful. Details
by letter."
This telegram was received at Bannerhall in the morning. In the early
afternoon of the same day Pen's mother received a letter written three
weeks earlier by his nurse at the hospital. She was an American girl
who had been long in France, and who, from the beginning of the war,
had given herself whole-heartedly to the work at the hospitals.
"Do not be unduly alarmed," she wrote, "he is severely wounded;
evidently a hand-grenade exploded against his breast; but if we
are able to ward off pneumonia he will recover. He has given me
your name and address, and wished me to write. I think an early
and cheerful letter from you would be a great comfort to him, and
I hope he will be able to appreciate some gifts and dainties from
home by the time they could reach here. Let me add that he is a
model patient, quiet and uncomplaining, and I am told that he was
among the bravest of all the brave Americans fighting with the
Canadian forces on the Somme."
Between Bannerhall and Sarah Butler's home at Lowbridge the telephone
lines were busy that day. It was a relief to all of them to know that
Pen was living and being cared for; it was a source of apprehension
and grief to them that his condition, as intimated in the telegram,
was still so critical.
As for Colonel Butler he was in a fever of excitement and distress.
Late in the afternoon he went to his room and, with his one hand,
began, hastily and confusedly, to pack a small steamer trunk. His
daughter found him so occupied.
"What in the world are you doing?" she asked him.
"I am preparing to go to Rouen," he replied, "to see that my grandson
is cared for in his illness in a manner due to one who has placed his
life in jeopardy for France."
"Father, stand up! Look at me! Listen to me!" The very essence of
determination was in her voice and manner, and he obeyed her. "You are
not to stir one step from this town. Sarah Butler and I are going to
France to be with Pen; we have talked it over and decided on it; and
you are going to stay right here at Bannerhall, where you can be of
supreme service to us, instead of burdening us with your company."
He looked at her steadily for a moment, but he saw only rigid
resolution and determination in her eyes; he was too unstrung and
broken to protest, or to insist on his right as head of the house, and
so--he yielded. Later in the day, however, a compromise was effected.
It was agreed that he should accompany his daughter and his
daughter-in-law to New York, aid them in securing passage, passports
and credentials, and see them safely aboard ship for their perilous
journey, after which he was to return home and spend the time quietly
with his niece Eleanor, and make necessary preparations for the
return of the invalid, later on, to Bannerhall.
He carried out his part of the New York program in good faith, and had
the satisfaction, three days later, of bidding the two women good-by
on the deck of a French liner bound for Havre. He had no apprehension
concerning the fitness of his daughter to go abroad unaccompanied save
by her sister-in-law. She had been with him on three separate trips to
the continent, and, in his judgment, for a woman, she had displayed
marked traveling ability. His only fear was of German submarines.
"A most cowardly, dastardly, uncivilized way," he declared, "of waging
war upon an enemy's women and children."
He was in good spirits as the vessel sailed. His parting words to his
daughter were:
"If you should have occasion to discuss with our friends in France the
attitude of this nation toward the war, you may say that it is my
opinion that the conscience of the country is now awake, and that
before long we shall be shoulder to shoulder with them in the
destruction of barbarism."