ink alike about States' rights; and when we did find out, we
paid mighty little attention to it, for we thought they'd come to an
agreement about this jest as they had about every other question
that'd ever come up between 'em. But when the President made his first
call for soldiers, David and Jonathan both went to Mother and asked
her consent to enlist. They was of age and might 'a' done as they
pleased. But as long as one of us children stayed under Father's roof,
we never took a step of any importance that we didn't first ask
Mother's consent.

"Well, Mother looked at 'em awhile, standin' before her so tall and
strong and handsome, and she says, 'My sons, you'll never have my
consent to goin' in the army.' And David and Jonathan looked at each
other, and then David spoke. 'Well, Mother,' says he, 'if you won't
give your consent, we'll have to go without it.' And Mother says, 'You
boys never disobeyed me in your lives, are you goin' to disobey me at
this late day?' And David says, 'No, Mother, we're goin' to obey you,'
says he. 'You've told us from our youth up that we must listen to the
voice of conscience and do whatever we thought was right,--I think one
way about this matter and Jonathan thinks the other, but we're both
listenin' to the voice of conscience and doin' what we think is right
jest as you taught us to do.'

"Well, of course, Mother couldn't answer that, and so the word went
out that David and Jonathan was goin' to enlist, and all the married
brothers and sisters gethered at the old home place to say farewell to
'em.

"Maybe you know, child, how you feel the mornin' after there's been a
death in the house. It hardly seems worth while to do any thing, for
your heart's in the coffin in the dark room, but you go on and cook
and put the house in order and try to eat the same as if nothin' had
happened. And that's the way we all felt the mornin' my brothers went
to the war. Mother wouldn't let anybody help her cook breakfast. Says
she, 'It's the last thing I can do for my boys, and I don't want any
help.' So she cooked the breakfast and waited on the boys and watched
'em while they eat, the same as she'd been doin' all their lives. And
when the meal was over, Father was at the gate with the wagon to take
'em to town to catch the mornin' train to Louisville, and from there
Jonathan had to go to Camp Joe Holt over in Indiana--that's where the
Federals had their recruitin' place--and David, he was to go to C