amp
Boone in Tennessee. All of us went out to the gate to say farewell,
and there wasn't a tear dropped nor a useless word said. If one had
cried we'd all 'a' cried. But we saw that Mother was holdin' her tears
back, so we all did the same. And we stood and looked till the wagon
was out o' sight, and then everybody went back to the house feelin' as
if we'd jest come back from a buryin'. Well, from that day on, all we
lived for was to hear the news from the battles and find out which
side beat. Some o' the neighbors was on the side o' the North and some
on the side o' the South, and one could rejoice to-day and another
one to-morrow, and one was prayin' for Lee and the other for Grant,
but Mother she'd say, 'It's all one! It's all one! There's no
rejoicin' for me no matter which side wins, and the only prayer I can
pray is "Lord! Lord! put an end to this war and give me back my
boys."' People used to come over and talk to Mother and try to make
her see things different. Uncle Haley says to her once, says he,
'Deborah, can't you think o' your country? There's a great question to
be settled. Nobody knows which is the strongest, the government up
yonder at Washin'ton, or the government down yonder in South Carolina
and right here in Kentucky. It's a big question,' says he, 'and it's
been botherin' this country ever since it's been a country, and this
war's goin' to settle it one way or the other for good and all, and no
matter which side a man's fightin' on, he's doin' his part in the
settlement.' Says he, 'You've got a son on each side, and you ought to
feel proud and glad that you're doin' so much for your country.' And
Mother's eyes'd flash and she'd say, 'Country! You men never told me I
had a country till you got up this war and took my sons away from me.
I'm nothin' but a poor old woman that's spent her life raisin' up a
family, and what's a country to me unless I've got my sons?'"

The mother-heart! It beats to the same measure, be it Garibaldi's time
in Italy or war-time in Kentucky.

And when Italy's made, for what end is it done
If we have not a son?
. . . . . . . .
When you have your country from mountain to sea,
When King Victor has Italy's crown on his head.
(And I have my dead.)

"If David and Jonathan had been on the same side," continued Aunt
Jane, "it would 'a' been easier for Mother; but she used to say it was
like havin' her heart torn in two, and one