answer by their own truth. He seemed a little startled at first,
pondered over the fateful fact a moment, then shook his head, with a
glance at the broad chest and muscular limbs stretched out before
him:--

"I'm not afraid, but it's difficult to believe all at once. I'm so
strong it don't seem possible for such a little wound to kill me."

Merry Mercutio's dying words glanced through my memory as he
spoke:--"'Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door,
but 'tis enough." And John would have said the same, could he have
seen the ominous black holes between his shoulders, he never had;
and, seeing the ghastly sights about him, could not believe his own
wound more fatal than these, for all the suffering it caused him.

"Shall I write to your mother, now?" I asked, thinking that these
sudden tidings might change all plans and purposes; but they did
not; for the man received the order of the Divine Commander to
march, with the same unquestioning obedience with which the soldier
had received that of the human one, doubtless remembering that the
first led him to life, and the last to death.

"No, ma'am; to Laurie just the same; he'll break it to her best, and
I'll add a line to her myself when you get done."

So I wrote the letter which he dictated, finding it better than any
I had sent; for, though here and there a little ungrammatical or
inelegant, each sentence came to me briefly worded, but most
expressive; full of excellent counsel to the boy, tenderly
"bequeathing mother and Lizzie" to his care, and bidding him good-by