she said, at last; "but if you think you can trust Frank, I will
do all I can to help him. I can't bear to think of having you go,
yet I am conscious that this is a feeling which I have no right
to indulge at the expense of my country."

"Yes," said her husband seriously. "I feel that I owe my country
a service which I have no right to delegate to another, as long
as I am able to discharge it myself. I shall reflect seriously
upon Frank's proposition."

There was no more said at this time. Both Frank and his parents
felt that it was a serious matter, and not to be hastily decided.

After breakfast Frank went up-stairs, and before studying his
Latin lesson, read over thoughtfully the following passage in his
prize essay on "The Duties of American Boys at the Present
Crisis:"

"Now that so large a number of our citizens have been withdrawn
from their families and their ordinary business to engage in
putting down this Rebellion, it becomes the duty of the boys to
take their places as far as they are able to do so. A boy cannot
wholly supply the place of a man, but he can do so in part. And
where he is not called on to do this, he can so conduct himself
that his friends who are absent may feel at ease about him. He
ought to feel willing to give up some pleasures, if by so doing
he can help to supply the places of those who are gone. If he
does this voluntarily, and in the right spirit, he is just as
patriotic as if he were a soldier in the field."