His brow would darken and he would begin to curse. A famous old horseman, he approached it as he might have approached a wild colt. It was her first vehicular triumph over him in almost fifty years of married life and he determined to learn to drive the thing himself. Grand-father was astonished and a little indignant when he saw her get into the contraption and drive off smoothly and easily. See also Part V – Many Masters – Story #58 She had become, surprisingly enough, quite skillful at getting around town in it. We knew that his inability to find Sherman would be bad for him and we were afraid that he might try to get there in the little electric runabout that had been bought for my grandmother. One reason we didn’t want grandfather to roam around at night was that he had said something once or twice about going over to Lancaster, his old home town, and putting his problem up to “Gump”-that is, General William Tecumseh Sherman, also an old Lancaster boy. About four o’clock he caught his brother asleep “He watched while I slept,” said grandfather, “so now I’m watching while he sleeps.” It seemed fair enough. When my Aunt Florence came into the room at seven o’clock, grandfather was sitting in the chair reading the Memoirs of U.S. When once Jake did fall asleep he slept deeply, so that grandfather was able to get up, dress himself, undress Jake, and put him in bed without waking him. About four o’clock that morning, he caught his brother sound asleep in the big leather chair beside the bed. He never answered any question Jake asked him. He would open his eyes, look at Jake, and close them again, frowning. On the third night, grandfather was wakeful. Grandfather was against the idea of Jake watching over him-he thought it was a lot of tomfoolery- but Jake hadn’t been able to sleep at night for twenty-eight years, so he was the perfect person for such a vigil. His brother Jake, some fifteen years younger than he was, sat up at night with him after he took to bed, because we were afraid he might leave the house without even putting on his clothes. He had wanted to lead a division and his chagrin at not even being able to enlist as a private was too much for him. The disappointment of not getting to Germany (he saw no sense in everybody going to France) and the strain of running around town seeing influential officials finally got him down in bed.
He applied several times and each time he took off his coat and threatened to whip the men who said he was too old. I left the University in June, 1918, but I couldn’t get into the army on account of my sight, just as grandfather couldn’t get in on account of his age.
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