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Fact is, before we knew it we
were all on our feet cheering for Alton and the folks at home and
the little lame man, who was just as good a soldier as any of us.
I tell you he heartened up the boys, what's left of us. I'm sorry
to hear he's so sick. If he should die, bury him with a soldier's
honors. JAMES WETHERBY."
"These plain, simple, unadorned words," concluded the Senator,
"need no comment. Their force and significance cannot be enhanced
by anything I can say. I do not know that I could listen quietly
to shrieking and exploding shells while I spoke words of courage
and good cheer; but I do know that I wish to be among the foremost
to honor your modest, unassuming townsman, who could do all this
and more."
Martine was visibly distressed by this unexpected feature in the
oration and the plaudits which followed. He was too sad, too weak
in body and mind, and too fresh from the ghastly battlefield, not
to shrink in sensitive pain from personal and public commendation.
He evaded his neighbors as far as possible and limped hastily
away.


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