"This troop is made up of Massachusetts men, and I'm from Massachusetts
too," continued the captain. "My name is Lester, and I had just
graduated from Harvard when the war began."
"Good stock up there in Massachusetts," said Harry boldly, "but I've one
objection to you."
"What's that?"
"Everything wonderful in our history was done by you. No chance was left
for anybody else."
"Well, not everything, but almost everything. Good old Massachusetts!
As Webster said, 'There she stands!'"
"It was mostly New York and Pennsylvania that stood at Gettysburg."
"Yes, you did very well there."
"Don't you think, Captain, that a nation or a state is often lucky in its
possession of writers?"
"I don't catch your drift exactly."
"I'll make an illustration. I've often wondered what were the Persian
accounts of Marathon and Thermopylae, of Salamis and Plataea. Now most
of our history has been written by Massachusetts men."
"And you insinuate that they have glorified my state unduly?"
"The expression is a trifle severe. Let's say that they have dwelled
rather long upon the achievements of Massachusetts and not so long upon
those of New York and Pennsylvania."
"Then let New York and Pennsylvania go get great writers.
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