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158
Adventures in Contentment
·
David Grayson
120
It
was
a
part
of
his
pride
in
finding
reality
that
made
the
Doctor
such
a
lover
of
true
sentiment
and
such
a
hater
of
sentimentality.
I
prize
one
memory
of
him
which
illustrates
this
point.
The
district
school
gave
a
"speaking"
and
we
all
went.
One
boy
with
a
fresh
young
voice
spoke
a
"soldier
piece"--the
soliloquy
of
a
one-armed
veteran
who
sits
at
a
window
and
sees
the
troops
go
by
with
dancing
banners
and
glittering
bayonets,
and
the
people
cheering
and
shouting.
And
the
refrain
went
something
like
this:
"Never
again
call
'Comrade'
To
the
men
who
were
comrades
for
years;
Never
again
call
'Brother'
To
the
men
we
think
of
with
tears."
I
happened
to
look
around
while
the
boy
was
speaking,
and
there
sat
the
old
Doctor
with
the
tears
rolling
unheeded
down
his
ruddy
face;
he
was
thinking,
no
doubt,
of
his
war
time
and
the
comrades
he
knew.
On
the
other
hand,
how
he
despised
fustian
and
bombast.
His
"Bah!"
delivered
explosively,
was
often
like
a
breath
of
fresh
air
in
a
stuffy
room.
Several
years
ago,
before
I
came
here--and
it
is
one
of
the
historic
stories
of
the
county--there
was
a
semi-political
Fourth
of
July
celebration
with
a
number
of
ambitious
orators.
One
of
them,
a
young
fellow
of
small
worth
who
wanted
to
be
elected
to
the
legislature,
made
an
impassioned
address
on
"Patriotism."
The
Doctor
was
present,
for
he
liked
gatherings:
he
liked
people.
But
he
did
not
like
the
young
orator,
and
did
not
want
him
to
be
elected.
In
the
midst
of
the
speech,
while
the
audience
was
being
carried
through
the
clouds
of
oratory,
the
Doctor
was
seen
to
be
growing
more
and
more
uneasy.
Finally
he
burst
out:
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
