In this new endeavor, Alvin wished to do what he could to shield the boys now at play among the red brush upon the mountainsides from being compelled to say, after they had grown to young manhood, what he himself had been forced to confess: "I'm just an ignorant mountain boy." And he is making rapid strides of progress for himself. I saw him enter the great banquet room of a leading hotel in one of the country's largest cities. The hall was filled with men and women of refinement and culture. As Sergeant York and his young wife entered, the banqueters arose and cheered them. This demonstration was a welcome to "Sergeant York, the soldier." He paused, with a smile of appreciation as he looked over the vast assemblage, and he bowed with a grace and dignity far beyond that which was expected of him from what his audience had read and heard. Then without turning his head, he reached for the hand of his bride and led her to the speakers' table upon a raised platform. And he was again to bring that assemblage to its feet and fill that hall with its cheers. This time it was for Alvin York, the man--as he talked to them about the boys of the mountains. Three days afterward, he entered the store of John Marion Rains at Pall Mall. As all the chairs and kegs of horseshoes were occupied, he put his hands behind him, swung himself to a place of comfort upon the counter, and took his part in the battle of wit as the firing flashed amid the tobacco smoke. Pall Mall was home, and there he permitted no distinction between individuals. This has wandered far afield as a biography of Sergeant York. It is but a story of the strength and the simplicity of a man--a young man--whom the nation has honored for what he has done, with something in it of those who went before and left him as a legacy the qualities of mind and heart that enabled him to fight his fight in the Forest of Argonne. The biography no doubt will be written later. He has not planned for the long years that lie ahead, but is following after a principle with a force that can not be deflected or checked. The future alone will tell where this is to lead him. This is really a story of but two years of his life--the period of time that has elapsed since Alvin York first found himself--a period in which he has done three things, and anyone of them would have marked him for distinction. He fought a great fight, declined to barter the honors that came to him, and using his new-found strength he has reached a helping hand to the children of the mountains who needed him. PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT! [Let him bear the palm who has deserved it!] End of Project Gutenberg's Sergeant York And His People, by Sam Cowan