A FEARFUL RESPONSIBILITY
AND OTHER STORIES
BY
WILLIAM D. HOWELLS
AUTHOR OF "THE LADY OF THE AROOSTOOK," "THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY," ETC.
BOSTON
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY
1881
Copyright, 1881,
By W. D. Howells.
All rights reserved.
University Press
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
CONTENTS.
A FEARFUL RESPONSIBILITY.
I.
Every loyal American who went abroad during the first years of our greatwar felt bound to make himself some excuse for turning his back on hiscountry in the hour of her trouble. But when Owen Elmore sailed, no oneelse seemed to think that he needed excuse. All his friends said it wasthe best thing for him to do; that he could have leisure and quiet overthere, and would be able to go on with his work.
At the risk of giving a farcical effect to my narrative, I am obliged toconfess that the work of which Elmore's friends spoke was a projectedhistory of Venice. So many literary Americans have projected such a workthat it may now fairly be regarded as a national enterprise. Elmore wastoo obscure to have been announced in the usual way by the newspapers ashaving this design; but it was well known in his[Pg 4] town that he wascollecting materials when his professorship in the small inland collegewith which he was connected lapsed through the enlistment of nearly allthe students. The president became colonel of the college regiment; andin parting with Elmore, while their boys waited on the campus without,he had said, "Now, Elmore, you must go on with your history of Venice.Go to Venice and collect your materials on the spot. We're comingthrough this all right. Mr. Seward puts it at sixty days, but I'll givethem six months to lay down their arms, and we shall want you back atthe end of the year. Don't you have any compunctions about going. I knowhow you feel; but it is perfectly right for you to keep out of it.Good-by." They wrung each other's hands for the last time,—thepresident fell at Fort Donelson; but now Elmore followed him to thedoor, and when he appeared there one of the boyish captains shouted,"Three cheers for Professor Elmore!" and the president called for thetiger, and led it, whirling his cap round his head.
Elmore went back to his study, sick at heart. It grieved and vexed himthat even these had not thought that he should go to the war, and thathis inward struggle on that point had been idle so far as others wereconcerned. He had been quite earnest[Pg 5] in the matter; he had once almostvolunteered as a private soldier: he had consulted his doctor, whosternly discouraged him. He would have been truly glad of any accidentthat forced him into the ranks; but, as he used afterward to say, it wasnot his idea of soldiership to enlist for the hospital.