The Civil War swept over the valley and left
splotches of blood.
Friends of Sergeant York, knowing that the history of his people was
rich in story, and that the public was waiting, wanting to know more of
the man the German army could not run, nor make surrender--and instead
had to come to him--urged that his story be told.
He had been mustered out of the army and come back to the valley wanting
to pick up again the dropped thread of his former life. He was striving
earnestly and prayerfully to blot from recurrent memory that October
morning scene on "York's Hill" in France.
His friends and neighbors at Pall Mall waited eagerly for his return.
They wanted to hear from his own lips the story of his fight.
No man of the mountains was ever given the home-coming that was his. It
was made the reunion of the people, with the neighbors the component
parts of one great family.
When home again, Alvin wanted no especial deference shown him. He wished
to be again just one of them, to swing himself upon the counter at the
general store and talk with them as of old. He had much to tell from his
experience, but always it was of other incidents than the one that made
him famous.
Months passed. He lived in that mountain cabin with his little mother,
whose counsel has ever influenced him, and yet not once did he mention
to her that he had a fight in the Forest of Argonne.
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