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Speaker 1: Three and one are one by Ambrose Bierce. In the

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year eighteen sixty one, Bar Lassiter, a young man of

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twenty two, lived with his parents and an elderly sister

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near Carthage, Tennessee. The family were in somewhat humble circumstances,

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subsisting by cultivation of a small and not very fertile plantation,

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owning no slaves. They were not rated among the best

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people of their neighborhood, but they were honest persons of

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good education, fairly well mannered, and as respectable as any

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family could be, if uncredentialed by personal dominion over the

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sons and daughters of ham. The elder Lassiter had that

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severity of manner that so frequently affirms an uncompromising devotion

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to duty and conceals a warm and affectionate disposition. He

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was of the iron of which martyrs are made, but

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in the heart of the matrix had lurked a nobler metal,

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fusible at a milder heat, yet never coloring nor softening

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the hard exterior by both heredity and environment. Something of

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the man's inflexible character had touched the other members of

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the family. The Lassiter home, though not devoid of domestic

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affection was a veritable citadel of duty, and duty ah

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duty is as cruel as death. When the war came,

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it found in the family, as in so many others

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in the state, a divided sentiment. The young man was

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loyal to the Union, the others savagely hostile. This unhappy

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division begot an unsupportable domestic bitterness. And when the offending

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son and brother left home with an avowed purpose of

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joining the federal army, not a hand was laid in him,

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not a word of farewell was spoken, not a good

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wish followed him out into the world, whither he might

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meet with such spirit as he might whatever fate awaited him.

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Making his way to Nashville, already occupied by the army

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of General Buell, he enlisted in the first organization that

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he found, a Kentucky regiment of cavalry, and in due

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time passed through all the stages of military evolution from

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raw recruit to experienced trooper. A right good trooper he was, too,

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although in his oral narrative from which this tale is made,

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there is no mention of that the fact was learned

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from his surviving comrades. For Barte Lassiter has answered here

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to the sergeant whose name is Death. Two years after

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he had joined it, his regidle passed through the region

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whence he had come. The country thereabout had suffered severely

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from the ravages of war, having been occupied alternately and

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simultaneously by the belligerent forces, and the sanguinary struggle had

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occurred in the immediate vicinity of the Lasseter homestead. But

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of this the young trooper was not aware. Finding himself

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in camp near his home, he felt a natural longing

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to see his parents and sister, hoping that in them,

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as in him, the unnatural animosity of the period had

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been softened by time and separation. Obtaining a leave of absence,

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he set foot in the late summer afternoon, and soon

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after the rising of the full moon, was walking up

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the gravel path leading to the dwelling in which he

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had been born. Soldiers in the war age rapidly and

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in youth. Two years are a long time. Bar Lassiter

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felt himself an old man, and had almost expected to

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find the place in ruin and desolation. Nothing apparently was changed.

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At the sight of each dear and familiar object. He

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was profoundly affected. His heart beat audibly, his emotions nearly

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suffocated him. An ache was in his throat. Unconsciously, he

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quickened his pace until he almost ran his long shadow,

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making grotesque efforts to keep its place beside him. The

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house was unlighted, and the door opened. As he approached

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and paused to recover control of himself, his father came

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out and stood bareheaded in the moonlight. Father cried the

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young man, springing forward with outstretched hand. Father, the elder

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man looked him sternly in the face, stood a moment motionless,

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and without a word, withdrew into the house. Bitterly disappointed, humiliated,

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unexpressibly hurt, and altogether unnerved. The soldier dropped into a

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rustic seat in deep dejection, supporting his head upon his

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trembling hand. But he would not have it. So he

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was too good a soldier to accept repulse as defeat.

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He rose and entered the house, passing directly to the

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sitting room. It was dimly lighted by an uncurtained east window.

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On a low stool by the hearth side, the only

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article of furniture in place, sat his mother, staring into

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the fireplace, strewn with blackened embers and cold ash. He

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spoke to her tenderly, interrogatively and with hesitation, but she

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neither answered, nor moved, nor seemed in any way surprised.

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True there had been time for her husband to apprise

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her of their guilty son's return. He moved nearer and

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was about to lay his hand upon her arm when

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his sister entered from an adjoining room, looked him full

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in the face, passed him without a sign of recognition,

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and left the room by a door that was partly

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behind him. He had turned his head to watch her,

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but when she was gone, his eyes again sought his mother.

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She too had left the place. Bar Lassiter strode to

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the door by which he had entered. The moonlight on

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the lawn was tremulous, as if the sward were a

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rippling sea. The trees and their black shadows shook as

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in a breeze, blended with its borders. The gravel walk

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seemed unsteady and insecure to walk on. This young soldier

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knew the optical illusions produced by tears. He felt them

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on his cheek, and he saw them sparkle on the

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breast of his troopers jacket. He left the house and

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made his way back to camp The next day with

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no very definite intention, with no dominant feeling that he

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would rightly have named. He again sought the spot. Within

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half a mile of it, he met Bushrod Elbrow, a

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former playfellow and schoolmate, who greeted him warmly. I'm going

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to visit my home, said the soldier. The other looked

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at him rather sharply and said nothing I know, continued Lesser,

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that my folks have not changed, but there have been changes.

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Albrow interrupted, Everything changes. I'll go with you, if you

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don't mind, we can talk as we go, But Albro

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did not talk. Instead of a home, they found only fire,

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blackened foundations of stone, inclosing an area of compact ash

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pitted by rains. Lassiter's astonishment was extreme. I could not

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find the right way to tell you, said Albro. In

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the fight a year ago, your house was burned by

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a federal shell, and my family where are they in heaven?

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I hope all were killed by the shell. The end

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of three and one are one by Ambrose Bierce