Patriotism -- Juvenile fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile fiction
Pen had been in New York before. On several memorable occasions, as a
boy, he had accompanied his grandfather Butler to the city and had
enjoyed the sights and sounds of the great metropolis, and had learned
something of its ways and byways. He had no difficulty, therefore, in
finding the address that had been given him by Major Starbird, and,
having found it, he was made welcome there. He learned, what indeed he
already knew, that Canada was not averse to filling out her quota of
loyal troops for the great war by enlisting and training young men of
good character and robust physique from the States. Armed with
confidential letters of introduction and commendation, and certain
other requisite documents, he left the quiet office on the busy street
feeling that at last the desire of his heart was to be fully
gratified. It was now late afternoon. He was to take a night train
from the Grand Central station which would carry him by way of Albany
to Toronto. Borne along by the crowd of home-going people he found
himself on Broadway facing Trinity Church. The dusk of evening was
already falling, and here and there the glow of electric lamps began
to pierce the gloom. On one occasion he had wandered, with his
grandfather, through Trinity Churchyard, and had read and been
thrilled by inscriptions on ancient tomb-stones marking the graves of
those who had served their country well in her early and struggling
years. Had it been still day he would not have been able to resist the
impulse to repeat that experience of his boyhood. As it was, he stood,
for many minutes, peering through the iron railing that separated the
living, hurrying throngs on the pavement from the narrow homes of
those who, more than a century before, had served their generation by
the will of God and had fallen on sleep.
As he turned his eyes away from the deepening shadows of the graveyard
it occurred to him that he would go to a hotel formerly frequented by
Colonel Butler, and get his dinner there before going to the train. It
would seem like old times, for it was there that they had stayed when
he had accompanied his grandfather on those trips of his boyhood. To
be sure the colonel would not be there, but delightful memories would
be stirred by revisiting the place, and he felt that those memories
would be most welcome this night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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