interested. It was upon Hal's request that Mrs. Paine had invited his
chum, Chester Crawford, to accompany them.

Chester was naturally eager to take the trip across the water, and, after
some coaxing, in which Mrs. Paine's influence also was brought to bear,
his parents finally agreed to their son's going so far away from home.

Hal's father was dead. A colonel of infantry, he was killed leading a
charge at the battle of El Caney, in the Spanish-American war. Hal's
grandfather died of a bayonet wound in the last days of the Civil War.

But, if Hal's father's family was a family of fighters, so was that of
his mother. Her father, a Virginian, was killed at the head of his men
while leading one of Pickett's regiments in the famous charge at
Gettysburg. Three of her brothers also had been killed on the field of
battle, and another had died in prison.

From her own mother Mrs. Paine had learned of the horrors of war. Before
the war her father had been a wealthy man. After the war her mother was
almost in poverty. While too young then to remember these things herself,
Mrs. Paine knew what havoc had been wrought in the land of her birth by
the invasion of armed men, and it is not to be wondered at that, in view
of the events narrated, she should view the coming struggle with anguish,
despite the fact that her own country was not involved and that there was
no reason why her loved ones should be called upon to take up arms.

Chester's father was a prominent and wealthy lumberman, and Chester,
although nearly a year younger than Hal, had graduated in the same class
with his comrade. The two families lived next door to each other, and the
lads had always been the closest of chums.