And it was there she promised to marry
him--when he returned from the war.
Men at the store saw Alvin come down from the mountain and he could not
escape some banterings over the success or failure of his early morning
tryst.
"Jes left it to her," he is said to have frankly confessed, "she can
have me for the takin' when I git back."
He and his mother were alone in their home for several hours. When he
left he stopped at the Brooks' porch where relatives and neighbors had
assembled. As he walked away he turned, unexpectedly, up the path toward
the rock on the mountainside. It is now known he went there to kneel
alone in prayer.
When he came down to the store, to the men waiting for him, he spoke
with an assured faith he had not shown before. "I know, now, that I'll
be back," he told them.
His mother, weeping, tho hiding it from him, had slowly followed as far
as the Brooks' porch.
Alvin, looking back toward the old Coonrod Pile home, saw her and waved
to her, then hurried to the buggy that was to take him to Jamestown.
As the grating of the moving buggy wheels on the road reached the Brooks
porch, Mrs. York gave a cry that went to responsive hearts in every home
in that part of the valley. And she secluded herself, and sobbed for
days.
VI
Sergeant York's Own Story
When Alvin went to war he carried with him a small, red, cloth-covered
memorandum book, which was to be his diary.
Pages:
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132