' 'Oh,' he said, 'a Cornish name--the great
iron-works. Do you know the Cornish rhyme? It rings right true.' I said,
'No, sir.' 'Well, it is good. Do your duty. There is a whole creed in the
word--man needs no other. God bless you, boys.' It was great, Leila. What
is the Cornish rhyme? Ask Uncle Jim. Write me care of the Engineer Camp.
"I put this on a separate slip for you. In Baltimore we were delayed and
I had an hour's leave. I called on your uncle, Charles Grey. He is Union
through and through. His brother Henry has gone South. While I was
walking with Mr. Charles Grey, a lady went by us, drawing away her skirts
with quite unmistakable contempt and staring at your uncle in a way which
was so singular that I asked what it all meant. He replied, 'It is your
United States cadet uniform--and the lady is Mrs. Henry Grey. I am not of
their acquaintance.' This, Leila, was my first taste of the bitterness of
feeling here. It is the worse for the uprising of union feeling all over
Maryland.
"My class-mates are rather jolly about their commissions and the prospect
of active war. I have myself a certain sense of being a mere cipher, a
dread too of failure. I can say so to you and to no one else. I am going
where death is in the air--and there are things which make me eager to
live--and--to be able to live to feel that I have done my duty.
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