On duty through the darkness. No one believed, no one dared to think that if peril had come again to the country, he would not have been ready,—ready to face danger and death for the people he had saved once, the people whom he loved, because he had dared death for ’em.
Yes, he wuz on duty.
There wuz a darker shadow come to him than any cloud that ever rose over a battle-field when, honest and true himself as the light, he still stood under the shadow of blame and impendin’ want, stood in the blackest shadow that can cover generous, faithful hearts, the heart-sickenin’ shadow of ingratitude; when the people he had saved from ruin hesitated, and refused to give him in the time of his need the paltry pension, the few dollars out of the millions he had saved for them, preferring to allow him, the greatest hero of the world, the man who had represented them before the nations, to sell the badges and swords he had worn in fightin’ their battles, for bread for himself and wife.
But he wuz on duty all through this night. Patient, uncomplainin’. And not one of these warriors fightin’ their bloodless battle of words aginst him, would dare to say that he would not have been ready at any minute, to give his life agin for these very men, had danger come to the country and they had needed him.
And when hastened on by the shock, and the suspense, death seemed to be near him, so near that it seemed as if the burden must needs be light—the tardy justice that came to him must have seemed like an insult, but if he thought so he never said it; no, brave and patient, he wuz on duty.
And all through the long, long time that he looked through the shadows for a more sure foe than had ever lain in Southern ambush for him, he wuz on duty. Not an impatient word, not an anxious word. Of all the feerin’, doubtin’, hopin’, achin’ hearts about him, he only wuz calm.
For, not only his own dear ones, but the hull country, friends and foes alike, as if learnin’ through fear of his loss how grand a hero he wuz, and how greatly and entirely he wuz beloved by them all, they sent up to Heaven such a great cloud of prayers for his safety as never rose for any man. But he only wuz calm, while the hull world wuz excited in his behalf.
For the sight of his patient work, the sight of him who stopped dyin’ (as it were) to earn by his own brave honest hand the future comfort of his family, amazed, and wonderin’ at this spectacle, one of the greatest it seems to me that ever wuz seen on earth, the hull nation turned to him in such a full hearted love, and admiration, and worship, that they forgot in their quicker adorin’ heart-throbs, the slower meaner throbs they had gin him, this same brave Hero, jest as brave and true-hearted in the past as he wuz on his grand death-bed.
They forgot everything that had gone by in their worship, and I don’t know but I ort to. Mebby I had. I shouldn’t wonder a mite if I had. But all the while, all through the agony and the labor, and when too wearied he lay down the pen,—he wuz on duty.
Waitin’ patiently, fearlessly, till he should see in the first glow of the sunrise the form of the angel comin’ to relieve his watch, the tall, fair angel of Rest, that the Great Commander sent down in the mornin’ watches to relieve his weary soldier,that divinest angel that ever comes to the abode of men, though her beauty shines forever through tears, led by her hand, he has left life’s battle-field forever; and what is left to this nation but memory, love, and mebby remorse.