Well, I am glad it has come. It is what I wanted and what I think you
wanted for me. It is useless to discuss all the possibilities of where
we are going and what we are going to do. From the look of things, I
think we are going to help the British. I hope so. Of course, we are a
mere drop in the bucket.
MAY 5.
[Sidenote: Happier always for having taken the chance.]
As I start off now, my only real big regret is that through
circumstances so much of my responsibility has been taken by
others--you, my brother, and your father. I don't know that I am really
to blame. At least, I am very sure that never in all my life did I
intentionally try to shift any load of mine onto another. But in any
case, it makes me all the more glad that I am where I am, going where I
am to go--to have my chance, in other words. I once said in jest that
all naval officers ought really to get killed, to justify their
existence. I don't exactly advocate that extreme. But I shall all my
life be happier for having at least taken my chance. It will increase my
self-respect, which in turn increases my usefulness in life. So can you
get my point of view, and be glad with me?
[Sidenote: The best things of life.]
Now I am to a great extent a fatalist, though I hope it really is
something higher than that. Call it what you will, I have always
believed that if we go ahead and do our duty, counting not the cost,
then the outcome will be in the hands of a power way beyond our own.
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