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Category:
Literary Fiction
Publisher: Richard French
ISBN-10: 153975460X
Type: Fiction
Pages: 340
Copyright: May 10, 2013
ISBN-13: 9781539754602
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Read about the experience of ordinary Americans during and after wars in three centuries. This novel, the 2nd in a series called "Witnesses", also tells about people who battle the influence an imaginary and dangerous cult in the recent past.
This novel continues the examination that began with "In the Time of the Scythians" of certain aspects of America's past and present. Warfare touches the lives of many people. Almost no one is cut out for it by nature. The narratives in this volume are about soldiers on the edge of war and people coping with the long-term effects of it. Enemies of peace and prosperity, of democratic ways, come in many forms. In this story, reluctant, volunteer crusaders prepare to fight the influence of a noxious cult and its leader. The title refers to a force for good active in life that we don't always recognize and that is stronger than the worst evil.
Excerpt
Dear Emma,
I was pleased to hear from you last week. No, I’m not upset that we haven’t been in touch for a long time. I knew you were busy and building a new life with Anthony. As I thought about your questions, impressions came to me in a disorderly rush that took me a few days to sort out. You asked about Alfred in particular – I remember how close you and he were when we were growing up – and so I’ve put in a lot about him.
First, I want you to know that my spirits are slowly reviving. I had company for dinner last evening – the first time since Mother’s funeral a year ago.
Priscilla Prince was here and her friend Thomas Buffum, a manager at the woolen mill and superintendent of the Sunday school at St. John’s on Cedar St. Adoniram Birdwell, my lawyer, another bachelor, also came. He can play various musical instruments and boasts that he’s done many useful things with his life, though I say it’s simply that he can’t sit still. Besides his law practice and the music he loves, he’s been a balloonist, an explorer, and has business interests. He says, though, that he feels at loose ends. I say it’s because he hasn’t had a family life since his wife passed on. He claims that a feeling of being at sea is common for many people nowadays, but we help ourselves if we keep busy. He has ideas, he said, that he hopes to carry out soon.
His comments didn’t please Mr. Buffum, who replied that the mark of maturity is not to rely on oneself, but on the divine power, on whom he leans quite a bit these days, he says, because his sister Maude is gravely ill.
Some of the neighbors hint that my seclusion after the deaths of Daniel and Alfred and Mother went on for an unhealthily long time, so they look surprised and pleased and skeptical when I tell them that I’ll do something useful in the years ahead, as if they think I’m too sensitive to make a sustained effort, but Adoniram’s example lingers in my thoughts. The sensitive ought to bestir themselves, for their own good and others. No one has a right to idleness.
The evening ended with music in the parlor. Adoniram played his violin, while I accompanied him on the piano and Priscilla and Mr. Buffum sang along with us. It was a special treat when we almost mastered two of Father’s songs, one about the great clown Bosworth Hooper, who toured the country around the time of the fighting between the states, and another about the warrior Sansonoit.
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